Lighthouse
by Enigmas
Summary: An ex-MI-5 officer who was held in Russia with Lucas North returns shortly after his death with shocking claims about the precarious situation the world has descended into. Harry and the team must decide if they trust her and if so, how they are to prevent the outbreak of the third world war. Plot and character based. Enjoy. Reviews welcome.Set after Season 9 alternative Season 10
1. Threats or Warnings

**Chapter 1**

Threats or Warnings

"What do you know about Sofia Fletcher?" Harry asked Ruth quietly.

"She was an MI-5 officer a few years ago. She was in Moscow and was kidnapped by the Russians with Lucas-"she broke off, awkwardly, the loss and betrayal of their colleague was still fresh in their minds and speaking the name they had believed him to go by felt like pouring salt on the gaping wound. She caught herself and continued in a controlled voice "When their cover was blown. She was released around the same time but she didn't want to come back to The Grid, she opened a book store just outside London I think. Why are you asking?"

"Because she's in my office. She claims to have highly important information that she feels obliged to pass on to us. She's also hinted about returning..."

"Be careful Harry...She was always, reserved, empty, but people say she's retreated so far into herself she forgets who she is, they say she's mad."

"I often find that whoever 'they' are, they're often wrong." He replied cryptically, on a more serious note he added, "If she did want to return to The Grid how would you feel about it?"

"I wouldn't have any objections, she was brilliant." Ruth replied bluntly.

"Thanks Ruth." Harry said, turning to leave.

"Let me know how it goes."

...

Sofia Fletcher sat, perfectly composed in a chair opposite the desk, taking in her surroundings and determining what she could learn about her old boss and mentor. A part of her missed this, missed The Grid missed feeling important, necessary. On the other hand, everything had changed so much that she barely recognised it and found it difficult to yearn for something that she knew nothing of anymore.

The door slid open noiselessly and she stood to receive the handshake from Harry Pearce who, unlike most of the things and people around her, had not changed.

"Mr. Pearce." She said, allowing a slight smile to tug at her lips at the sight of him and the reassuring feel of his rough hand in hers.

"Sofia, it's been a while."

"Yes, it has." She agreed with a soft sigh, never one for small talk finding such obvious observations a waste of time and energy.

"You said you had some information to pass on to us?" he said, matter-of-factly taking his seat behind the desk and surveying her through cold calculating eyes.

She smiled again, remembering now why she and Harry had got on so well.

"I hear that one of your officers is dead, Lucas North?" she said vaguely.

It was clearly not what Harry had been expecting, he leant back in his chair, taking a deep breath and studying her, no longer treating her as an ex-colleague or an asset, but as an opponent in the literary chess game that was played daily within these walls. He looked at her, trying to assert how much she already knew and how much therefore he should tell her. He knew that she and Lucas had worked together and, more importantly, suffered through Russia together, he could not expect her to be unbiased and impassive about his recent death. He decided to take her temperature and force her to reveal more before he gave her anything.

"Yes." He said simply.

"Terrible business..."

"Indeed."

"Not killed in the line of duty as I understand it, more of a _dishonourable discharge." _She said, her eyes narrowing, again leaving everything open ended, forcing him to guess at how much she knew.

Harry was beginning to feel that Sofia knew more than he did on this subject, he had spent most of his time when she was on The Grid feeling as such, although he had soon discovered that she often did not initially though by the end of their conversation she invariably did. She had an incredible talent for getting people to part with information they would rather not, without them realising that they were giving up anything at the time.

"Something like that...He could no longer cope with the demands of the job, he committed suicide." He said, deciding that she was trying to determine how far to trust him but asking for information that she already had.

"Bullshit. I _knew _Lucas, I don't believe it." She said, suddenly appearing to become far more open about the subject though her voice remained flat and even. The effect was indescribable.

"I thought I knew him too." Harry admitted, he was not in the mood for discussing his intimate, and fresh feelings on this subject, least of all with Sofia but knew that he had to give her something.

"Don't misunderstand me, I didn't know him like you did Harry. I _knew _him..." She said softly, "Eight years in Russia...In that situation, you don't need people to tell you things about them to know them. I know everything about that man, nothing would surprise me about him, and yet this did. That tells me everything I need to know about it."

"You were held together?" Harry asked, surprised, not aware that male and female prisoners were allowed to mix, choosing to ignore the rest of her observations on this matter.

"Not quite." She said with a sinister smile, "When they realised we knew each other they placed our cells side by side...Sometimes it is the pain of others that will make you break."

She broke off, allowing him to digest this piece of information, also choosing to ignore the second part of her concerns about Lucas' death.

Harry was becoming irritated. Sofia was pressing buttons and she knew it. Lucas, or John, or whoever he had been was dead; whatever her personal feelings on the matter he had no interest in them or her conspiracy theories pertaining to Lucas' death.

"He's dead Sofia." He said brutally, "Whoever he was, whatever he was, whatever you felt about him doesn't matter anymore. Whatever he was to you and whatever you believe about this won't change anything...Dead men have no use for reputations."

"No, no they don't..." she said quietly. Pondering her next move

"You said you had information." He pressed tiredly, not giving her the chance to discuss Lucas anymore.

"I did, and I do...But we need to deal with Lucas first."

He swore and leapt to his feet, banging his fists against the thick wooden table, "I have no interest in discussing the man I believed to be Lucas North, and don't have the time to agonise over conspiracy theories that have no bearing on anything. It's been nice seeing you Sofia. We'll do this later, for old times sake if nothing else, but I can't be worrying about dead men, I've got a country to protect." He snapped, saying far more than he intended in his anger, and revealing more than that to her. He was angry, angry at her and angry at Lucas, he had been completely taken in, swallowed every one of his lies and believed them to such an extent that he had cared about the man. He no longer cared however, about whatever information she did or did not have, he could do without it. He wouldn't even entertain her potential return while she was in this state of mind.

She had not flinched when he had leapt to his feet and her face remained mask-like and impassive throughout his speech. As he made for the door she spoke in a perfectly calm, even tone," Lucas North is not dead. John Bateman never existed. " Harry sighed and made to wrench the door open before she said with the trace of an edge to her voice now, "And if you want to stop Britain from becoming embroiled in the third world war, then you will _sit_ down and listen to me."

A/N: My first go at FanFiction, I know the whole 'Lucas coming back from the dead' thing has probably been overdone but I hope that I can create a plausible explanation for it and build an actual plotline around it. I hope this is OK, my apologies, I am extremely unsure and insecure about this so please let me know what you thought :)


	2. Delicate Disclosures

**Chapter 2**

"What did you say?" Harry breathed, his hand hovering on the door handle where, seconds before he had been ready to wrench it open and leave Sofia sitting in his office without the burden of having to concern himself with her. If she wanted his attention she had it, bullshit or not, it was a compelling reason to stay.

"You know perfectly well what I said or else you wouldn't still be here." She said quietly, her eyes following him as he returned to the seat behind the desk without thinking.

"I've heard some...

"Shit?"

"In my time but this..."

"Scariest part is thinking I'm not lying..." she said softly.

He nodded and reached for the bottle of the faithful Scotch perched on a shelf over their heads innocently watching the proceedings below, waiting for a time when it would be needed. That time was definitely now. Harry poured a generous measure for Sofia and pushed it towards her before being even more generous with his own glass.

"It would be best, I think, to start where I intended with Lucas."

"How does he factor into all of this?" Harry asked sighing and taking a large swig from his glass. She didn't touch her own.

"He figured it out, before he 'died'," she said flatly watching as Harry took another reassuring drink of the Scotch, the glass was now cradled protectively in his hands.

"And you say he's not dead?" Harry said, sceptically, his brain was now beginning to function to a level that allowed him to do more than reach for the Scotch, next on its list of priorities was the return of his famed cynicism.

"No, Lucas may be many things but dead is not one of them."

"At present..." Harry muttered darkly.

"That's a little cold Harry, he was your colleague, your friend...If either of you had cause to hate the other it was he...Eight years is a long time." She said grimly.

"He _was _my colleague and he _was _my friend, not anymore...And while we're on the subject of Russia, there has been some _talk _of the real reasons that you didn't return to The Grid, forgive me if I'm even less inclined to believe some far-fetched theory when it's presented to me from the likes of you." Harry sneered, he was too tired and too angry at her reminder of exactly what he had lost when Lucas had jumped off that roof to be reasonable.

She watched him through calculating eyes and saw that there was some regret of his rash comments. "Lucas and I were close in Russia, and afterwards, I'm not going to sit here and lie to your face to serve my own ends." She said rather pointedly, "And I didn't return to The Grid because I didn't want to, Lucas had to have a purpose he had to find something that he could lose himself in entirely, I saw a way out, a rare opportunity that not many people in our line of work get, I took it...I regretted it in the coming months but I took it and I stuck to it...As for people talking...Ruth doesn't seem to believe that...I would have expected you to trust her judgment, even if you felt that you didn't know me well enough after Russia."

"How?" Harry asked, shocked, Sofia had not spoken to anyone since she had arrived, she had been herded into his office and there she had waited.

"My grandmother was deaf, lip reading is a talent." She said with a wolfish grin. "People will always talk, people said Lucas shouldn't have come back because he was nuts, people said I was nuts because I didn't come back, it was a lose, lose situation whichever way you looked at it...I looked at it the way I always did, the way I wanted to regardless of how anyone else viewed it."

"Very well..." Harry said, suitably chastised by her shutdown of his rather childish digs that he sat back and presented her with a window of opportunity in which to speak. One that she made full use of.

"It struck me as odd, and it must have struck you too, that a man who was willing to go through eight years of Russian Hell would kill himself because he 'couldn't cope with the demands of the job'." She began.

The thought had struck Harry, but he told her the same thing he had told himself, "The situations were completely different, the pressures faced in each situation could not be compared, and who can ever claim to know what is going on in someone else's head?" he said quietly, making to refill their glasses but leaving his empty when he realised that she hadn't even looked at hers.

"True. Some pressures are enjoyable, others are not. Everything Lucas did in Russia he did for this country and this job. I'd guess he didn't even get changed before he divided back into working here?" she said perceptively. Harry nodded, that much was certainly true. "This job was the only thing that made sense to Lucas after Russia, it was the only thing he could do to stop himself going crazy. He told himself in there that everything he was doing was making a difference, every time they tortured him and he gave them nothing he was saving people's lives. When he came back he had to keep making a difference, he had to convince himself that he still mattered, this job was the only way he could do that."

"If you were making a case for him _not _committing suicide, this isn't your best line of defence." Harry said bluntly, "Lucas faced losing the only thing that he cared about according to you."

"Exactly." She said, as though Harry had just realised what she had been angling towards. He may have, but he didn't know,

"What do you mean?"

"If everything with John Bateman, the Albany file, was the only thing stopping Lucas North from _being _Lucas North, stopping him from losing the only thing he had left, do you not think he would have been a little more careful about his past? Was it not a little bit too easy to find evidence against him?" She asked.

Harry stared at her. The details of Lucas' death and certainly the Albany scandal leading up to it were never released anywhere that Sofia could have got a hold of them and he wondered where the Hell she was getting her information, all of which was rock solid.

"People make mistakes Sofia." He said, pathetically, at the minute she was making a much better case than he was.

"Yes they do, but there are mistakes and then there are things that a trained monkey would have avoided. You were too busy standing on your soapbox being blinded and hurt by betrayal to see the very obvious trail of breadcrumbs being left for you. Whether Lucas was John Bateman, there's only so much you can change about yourself, your name, you details, they don't make you who you are, becoming Lucas North wouldn't suddenly have flipped a switch in his head and made him a completely different person. Lucas didn't make mistakes before Russia and he sure as Hell didn't afterwards."

"Easy access of information does _not _conclusively prove that Lucas North existed and it definitely doesn't prove that he still does." Harry said dismissively, he had already been fooled and betrayed by this man once and was loathe to believe that he had been played to a greater extent than he suspected.

"No it doesn't, but it did give me enough reason to start digging. After he died, you didn't read the autopsy report did you?" she asked, again her apparent familiarity with things she shouldn't have access to unnerved Harry but for the time being he decided it didn't really matter. He would find the microchip she had embedded in his brain later.

"No...I had a fairly good idea of what it would say." He replied humourlessly.

"That's what I thought but it turned out to be worth the trouble. " she said, producing graphic autopsy photos and laying them out on the table. Harry winced slightly but allowed himself to study them as she spoke, "First of all I read the ME's report, apparently Lucas had terminal lung cancer, his body was riddled with tumours."

"What?"

She nodded and continued, "That got me too, but it was this that made me really sit up and take notice. I'll admit that before I saw this I was chasing rabbits, I didn't want any of it not to be true, I wanted to believe that the man I knew wasn't corrupt and insane and that he wasn't dead...I didn't have anything to justify it until then." She rifled around in her papers before removing a shot of one of Lucas' tattoos." You remember the tattoo Lucas had behind his neck?" she asked, pointing at it.

Harry did remember. It was one of the first things that he had asked Lucas about his time in Russia. It was then he realised that, however much he may look the same, Russia had changed him, more than either of them were ever willing to admit. "_Dum Spiro, Spero." _He muttered .

"Look at the tattoo..." she said quietly.

_Dum Spero, Spiro._ Harry stared at her, "I know." She said softly, "The pictures are definitely genuine and they're definitely from our jumper's autopsy." She told him. "This made me do some more digging. That man, "she said, pointing to the autopsy pictures, "Is one Craig Jones. He was diagnosed with lung cancer two months before this incident. His parents both died from it and he didn't want to go the same way, intolerable pain only to die at the end. He didn't want to put his family through that, he wanted to kill himself but he had a problem. He didn't want to leave his family with nothing, life insurance companies will declare the policy void if you commit suicide. Then Craig met Lucas and everybody won." She said softly, "Craig already looked like Lucas, and the bits that didn't? Well plastic surgery has made some phenomenal leaps forward recently. The tattoos were easy enough as well, Lucas paid for everything. After he'd gone through all that, it didn't seem very likely that he wasn't going to go through with it. He did. Lucas asked you to turn your back, you did, Craig Jones jumped off the roof and Lucas jumped down the fire escape. Craig Jones' family received double what they would have received from his life insurance company and Lucas North was declared dead. Everybody's happy..."

As she had spoken she had laid pieces of paperwork on the desk in front of them that substantiated her story. Harry stared, he wasn't dead, it seemed impossible, and yet there was more evidence for this than most of the things that went on on a daily basis at MI-5. Why was it so difficult for him to accept? People faked their own deaths all the time, it was not a new thing...But this wasn't 'people' this was Lucas, a man he had trusted, a man he had been deceived by for years, deceived so well that he had actually cared about him. It had taken everything he had to get over his death and his betrayal the first time round, he didn't want to deal with it a second time. He didn't care about Lucas anymore because he couldn't bring himself to care. And yet here was the evidence for why he should...His instincts were still clinging to the desire to despise the man that had been Lucas North and continued to argue while the rest of him knew it was pointless, "Ok, so he's not dead...That doesn't prove he's not a traitor and a murderer and it doesn't prove that John Bateman didn't exist."

"True...That ties in with what I thought you were going to ask me...World War Three...You need to check your priorities Harry." She said grinning mercilessly.

"You're enjoying this far too much." He told her, sighing and deciding 'what the Hell?' as he poured himself more Scotch. "Go on then, get on with it, tell me in your own sweet time and way."

She chose to delicately ignore his first comment and said, "You remember a few years ago the SugarHorse and Tiresias networks?" she asked plainly, as though reminding him of a particularly bad thunderstorm, she made to continue without waiting for a response but he interrupted her, dumbfounded and demanded,

"How the Hell do you know those names?"

"I know much more than names Harry." She said dismissively, with a hint of impatience, "I'm a code-breaker, a hacker and I can be _very _persuasive when I so choose." _Too bloody true..._Harry thought miserably, "There isn't any secret known to man or machine that I can't find out if the fancy strikes me..." she told him. The worst part was, he fully believed this to be true.

"A few days before he died Lucas left me a very strange letter...I could have accepted it being a suicide note if it hadn't come from Lucas who was the type to do neither, and it made some sort of sense."

She spread a sheet of paper on the desk in front of them, Harry looked with a twinge at the thin, beautiful, slanting writing that he had come to know so well,

_Words were your nemesis forever so this'll stay short. I needed to die. My first hit, a knife to the chest, then a web around my eyes. John bridges what damage done. Too many be gone, listen, save the clock here for us. _

_Lucas North. _

Harry stared at it. She was right, it didn't make much sense. He would probably have been able to draw some sense from it and, prior to his knowledge about Lucas faking his death, he would probably have accepted it as the suicide note from a man with a questionable mental state, now however...

"There were several things that struck me as odd but the first line in particular...You don't tell a code-breaker that they don't like words, that's like telling you you don't like Scotch..." she said quietly. "It bugged me, a _lot_ especially considering that it was Lucas who, as you may remember, had a fondness for literature and could more than comfortably string two words together to get his point across...Insomnia's a wonderful thing, I started playing about with it a night...It's an anagram..."

"An anagram?" Harry asked in disbelief.

She nodded and placed a second piece of paper on the desk in front of them,

"_O", "U.S", "C.N.S"-World War Three. One must never rise, or lies will fly, his heart dies. This my friends, take note; if Two becomes Three, anybody standing judges those who dare to be. Man hangs on the eve my heart lies, four o'clock. _

"I was never a big one for coincidences." She said as he raised his head and looked at her questioningly, "And this was too much to be mere coincidence."

"Then what is it?" Harry asked, as far as he was concerned the second message made about as much sense as the first.

"It's a warning, and an invitation." She said, her eyes gleaming, God she had missed this.

"So where is our Lucas?" he asked

She smiled and leaned back in her chair, "I've done my job Harry...It's your turn now."

...

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews :) I hope that this has answered some questions from the first chapter. I also hope that it makes sense, it does in my head but when it's put down on paper I'm not sure how plausible it will be in reality. I understand that I am not the best writer (by any stretch of the imagination)and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, hope you are enjoying so far, let me know what you liked, didn't like and couldn't care less about :)

A/N2: As a side note, the anagram took me longer to write than I will ever admit :) So I will say that, while constructive criticism, as indicated above, is appreciated, if you happen across any problems with this, kindly keep them to yourself :)


	3. Eye of the Storm

**Chapter 3**

Eye of the Storm

The constant dripping of raindrops from the gutter to the concrete slabs below was beginning to get on his nerves. The downpour had been heavy and violent but short-lived and had long since stopped taking with it the worst of the flashbacks. Or so he thought...

Three years...Three years and still, the same things over and over. A few days after his return he had called it 'normal.' A few weeks he said that, while irritating, it was to be expected. Three exhausted months and he had began to get frustrated. Six months and he was furious with himself. A year and he reasoned it had been _eight _years, eight long horror filled years and, like a drug, his body still expected that treatment, missed it even, in a way he needed it. Three years on and he had forgotten the analysis of his psyche and had simply accepted it as a way of life...

He closed his eyes and allowed the inevitable onslaught of disjointed sounds and images to assault his consciousness. _Sugarhorse. Drowning. I'm going to die...Please let me die. Silence. Cold, clinical walls. The screaming of others. Praying it wouldn't be him next. More torture. Then emptiness, nothing. Praying that it _would _be him, a craving for pain, 'better than nothing...' Nothing. Nothing. Sweet nothing..._

He was breathing hard when he finally managed to force his eyes open to face the actual situation that he was facing. He may have accepted the constant, unpredictable reminders of his time in Russia but that didn't make them any more enjoyable.

Not for the first time he wondered if life would have been better if he had stayed in Russia. The secrets and lies that made up his life would be entirely his own and he would therefore be in complete control of them. He wouldn't be constantly second-guessing the true natures and motives of everyone around him. Life in Russia had been filled with pain and suffering but it had been simple. Everyone had and knew their place, everyone behaved as was expected and nothing that he couldn't see coming had ever happened. Now he had no idea what his place was in _this _life. That was entirely in the hands of others which was not something that he took any pleasure or comfort in...

Soft footsteps. Two sets, one more than he had been expecting walked towards them. He did not flinch. Did not reach for the gun at his hip. Did not attempt to run. Did not speak. He closed his eyes and waited.

Someone had made a decision. Whoever they were and whatever it was he had no control over. He would just have to accept whichever fate they now handed him.

"Lucas."

"Sofia." He had not had to open his eyes to recognise the enigmatic voice whispered softly in his ear.

He smiled and embraced her. They broke apart quickly, too quickly for most, but it was more than intimate enough for both of them and showed the depth of understanding and compassion they had for each other.

"You solved it?" He breathed.

"No Lucas, I developed prophetic dreams and they led me here." She replied her tone caught between sarcastic and playful. "Of course I solved it."

Harry had been watching the proceedings as they began to murmur together, having no need to speak in a different language to exclude him from the conversation.

"Lucas." The second voice was equally familiar but far less welcoming.

"Harry." His appearance had been a slight surprise. Sofia had made a decision and she had made it quickly but he had never expected her to involve Harry.

The two men stood opposite each other, neither understanding or trusting the others motives. Simultaneously two guns were produced and forced to stare down the barrel of the other. Sofia sighed and snapped impatiently,

"Don't, if you were going to do that both of your brains would already be decorating the inside of this place...Which may actually improve it..."

Slowly, and still in silence, they replaced the guns, neither taking his eyes off the other, ready to react.

"A dead man. With a few tales to tell I'd wager." Harry said softly, breaking the dead silence between them.

Lucas made a motion that seemed undecided as to whether or not it was a nod or a shrug.

"Why?" Harry spat, all of the anger and confusion that he had been dealing with in the past few months was better expressed in that word than in thirty pages text.

"I had to die." Lucas said, simply, "In such a way that the only people who would ever know were the only ones that needed to."

"Why?" Harry asked again in mingled curiosity and frustration.

"Do you remember, three years ago, the first thing you asked me when I came home?" Harry nodded and looked as though he too had been contemplating what would have been if Lucas never had come home, "You suspected me of being a double agent-" Harry shot a warning glance at Sofia.

Lucas sighed and said, "Don't bother, she already knows." Sofia grimaced and had the decency to flush slightly, but she denied nothing.

"I remember." Harry said bluntly, in an effort to get the conversation moving in some sort of direction.

"I told them I would spy for them to get home. Arkady Kachimov trusted me far more than he ever should have. Though in his mind, why shouldn't he? He trusted me for the same reasons you didn't...He told me a lot of things that he shouldn't have in an effort to gain my confidence. I didn't have much use for the snippets of information he passed to me and thought most of them were just ways of making sure I wasn't feeding MI-5 information. The thing I thought I gained most from our relationship was access."

"Access to what exactly?" Harry asked flatly. He had lived in the past so much recently that he was not enjoying this particular jaunt down memory lane.

"To minute pieces in the big picture of something that Russia had put in place during the Cold War. If Britain and America had known about it at the time...We would not be having this conversation. As it was I only found out about it a few months ago." Lucas paused for what Sofia considered dramatic effect before continuing when no drum roll was forthcoming, "It was a sleeper network that the Russians called Lighthouse, the magnitude and complexity of this thing made the Tiresias operation look like an amateur plot."

"And what is the purpose of Lighthouse?" Harry asked, tightly.

"To start a war on a global scale." Lucas said matter-of-factly as though informing them that the Russians had developed a new type of toaster.

"Oh is that all?" Harry snapped.

Lucas shrugged, "Make of it what you will, it is what it is."

"Very deep, very thoughtful-" Harry began, fuming.

Sofia interrupted hastily, "How does Russia benefit from this?"

"What you have to remember is that no-one was supposed to know about this."

"That's generally the point of a classified, sleeper operation." Harry muttered.

Lucas continued as though there had been no interruption, "The idea was that Russia set off a string of attacks on all major powers. Each attack would have the fingerprints of another nation that already had cause to mistrust the target. Russia planned to divide the world into two halves applying pressure to cracks that already existed. It formed to forcibly burn bridges and build new ones effectively dividing the world in two while it remained neutral..."

"Russia sits and watches as the world destroys itself..." Harry murmured.

Lucas nodded, carefully watching the other two.

"And how do you come by this information?" Harry asked, the bitter part of him still determined to hate and mistrust the man opposite him.

"The idea was that hundreds of people all over the world were each given separate unique pieces of seemingly trivial information. Alone they meant nothing combined...They meant a lot more." He began grimly. "As a sign of 'good faith' Kachimov entrusted me with a fragment of information, the network had existed since the Cold War but because times were forever changing and nations fell in and out with each other as they went in and out of fashion, the network had to be continually revised and added to. Kachimov told me that it was probably the most important thing he had ever told me. A part of the idea was that only a select few were told about the full Lighthouse operation, others like me were just given seemingly meaningless pieces of information and told to keep them quiet. At the time I thought that he was playing me, feeding me something worthless to see if it got back to MI-5."

"What did you do about it at the time?" Harry asked, intrigued against his will.

"I was curious to say the least, I couldn't work out what the point of this was and the more I thought about it the less sense it made for it to be bait for MI-5 to catch me out. I tried to do some digging into it and found out that it was but a piece in a much larger cover but Kachimov was killed and my cover was blown before I could get any idea of the scale of the operation he had involved me in." Lucas said, delicately, watching Harry closely for a reaction.

"Why didn't you keep looking? There are ways and means of finding things out." Sofia began.

"I know that, but it didn't seem important. After Kachimov's death I didn't have FSB officials on my doorstep after my blood because of what he had told me. I forgot about it...I had spent enough of my life obsessing and losing myself in little things..."

"What changed? Why bring it back up now?" Harry asked quietly, wishing Lucas would hurry up and spit it out...

"I was contacted by one of the 'triggers' one of the ones who knew some of the importance of their information and what it meant. The trigger I was contacted by was placed in China, during the Cold War he had been contacted by Russia after working with the FSB on a sensitive operation because he was bitter towards Britain and America in particular. He had held onto his information for years, since this is Russia the information he had been given above mine wasn't huge, paranoid buggers...He was left out in the cold by Russia after the war, he was tortured for his troubles and they abandoned him, sent him back to Russia with nothing, he was bitter and he was looking for revenge."

"That gave you an opportunity..." Harry whispered, beginning to see where this could be going.

Lucas nodded and said, "He was pissed, he was looking for a way to double-cross Russia...I gave him one. I set up a deal for his information, gave him some vague details as to who I was really and told him that I had fallen out of love with Russia too, promised that I would hurt Russia with what he gave me. He wasn't convinced, he demanded proof that I was really willing to give up and lose as much as he did over this. Both of us had been treated to Russian hospitality in the past and neither of us were keen to repeat. He wanted something to trade, one of our classified files that he could feed the Chinese government to buy himself protection."

"Albany." Harry breathed, comprehension dawning.

"Not specifically. He wanted me to prove myself by giving him something big that he could use as a 'get out of jail' card if this went South, two birds one stone and all that..."

Harry nodded slowly, "So what Albany? How did you even find out about it in the first place?"

"Malcolm."

This shocked Harry more than anything that had passed between them so far.

"Malcom?" he repeated, sure he had somehow misheard.

Lucas nodded, "I went to him and explained everything. For this to work everything had to be done out with MI-5, I had no idea who I could trust and who could be watching me. Malcolm was the only person outside The Grid with access to that kind of information that I trusted enough to go to for help. I asked him for something that I could use to trade with. He suggested Albany. We both knew that it would never work but the Chinese didn't they just heard 'revolutionary genocide' and they were sold. It was flawed perfection...What happened after that, I think you know..." He trailed off allowing them to digest his latest revelations.

Harry however did not know, or at least did not know enough. There were still too many questions on his mind that he needed answers to. He jumped reflexively to one that had been at the top of the list since he started believing that Lucas may actually have had a justifiable excuse for his actions.

"Ruth?" Was all he managed to say but it was all that Lucas needed.

"Collateral...As I've said this had to play out as though there was no involvement from MI-5, as a result I didn't think that that wandering onto The Grid and saying 'Hi Harry I need one of our classified files on the most devastating genetic weapon we possess to give to the Chinese, by the way it'll stop Russia from taking over the world' would have worked too well..." Harry's expression prompted him to add in an undertone, "I would never have hurt her Harry..."

He didn't seem overly reassured by this and said, coldly, "What about Maya?"

Lucas froze, he had expected this to come up and he had an answer for it but her death still seemed unnecessary and cruel to him, "She-" he began shakily, suddenly unable to string his thoughts together coherently.

Fortunately Sofia seemed to understand, "She was involved by choice, she knew..." he said in a hollow whisper.

Lucas nodded, "After our cover was blown in Moscow she tried to make a deal with the Russians to get us back. Don't ask me how she managed it, she wouldn't tell me...Anyway, she got in out of her depth, they saw through whatever lies she had told them. They killed her family...This was her revenge, she knew the risks when she got involved."

Harry still had concerns over this but decided to give Lucas the benefit of the doubt and left them alone for a moment saying, "How did Vaughn factor into all of this?"

"Ah, I can't take the credit for that. That piece of genius came from Malcolm. Everything about this had to be planned and orchestrated as though everything _had _actually happened, I had to be fully prepared to walk away from this with less than nothing therefore everything had to play out as though they were listening and watching. Devil's in the details..." He paused a moment before continuing hastily, "There was already blood between me and 'Vaughn' whose real name was Christopher Jennings. Malcolm knew about it and suggested we use him to add another layer. Malcolm sought out Jennings and they put their heads together over a cup of tea and some Scotch and discussed what a terrible person I was. Malcolm fed Jennings information about my 'past', about my involvement in the bombings in Dakar when I was known as John Bateman. He told Jennings that the real Vaughn was dead and that back in Dakar I had never met him. He gave him the opportunity to blackmail me, something that he seized with both hands. Malcolm fed him the information that would ensure that I believed he was Vaughn, he told him that with that and some confidence and acting ability, I would be forced to do whatever he asked. Jennings was not the most intelligent, bitter and blinded by hatred he was easily manipulated. Malcolm made it that he became my go between with the Chinese, he was told that it would ruin me, make me lose everything because of what he was blackmailing me with and what it would achieve in the end, which was true enough. I told my original Lighthouse contact that it would be too risky for us to meet in person and I introduced him to Jennings, as Vaughn..."

"No-one was who they said they were and everyone was being played by everyone else..." Sofia muttered.

"Exactly. It had the added advantage that it introduced someone who would back up the John Bateman story, it gave it depth and made it more believable than faked birth certificates and false confessions...Maya was a similar idea..."

"Why the need for John Bateman? This could have been just as easily achieved as Lucas North, easier in fact, without the need for Maya or Vaughn to become involved."

Lucas nodded in agreement before saying, "Yes, it could have but I needed a back door. A way out that would allow me to disappear without you ever wanting or needing to know where or why. I had to have something that would completely obliterate the trust between us, I had to make something that we could never recover from. The easiest way I could think of was creating an entirely different person, someone with a past that you could never forgive. Lucas North you had ties to, you trusted, cared about even. John Bateman however wasn't subjected to the same rose tinting treatment, he was no-one; he meant nothing to you, nothing to anyone. The whole idea of the past life, the identity confusion, it was the ultimate betrayal, I knew you would never be able to trust me after that."

Harry was becoming tired of all these people knowing more about him than he knew about himself he contented himself however with grunting, "You sound like a shrink..."

"I had to be..." Lucas muttered.

"So John Bateman I take it was your way if ensuring that no-one at MI-5 would ever be able to bring themselves to look more closely at whatever disappearing act you pulled, but why did you feel the need to throw yourself off the roof?"

"Bateman was my back-up, the failsafe that I needed, but it was definitely a last-resort. I knew that if I ended up outing that I had lost everything. And then I realised that that was perfect..."

"How so?" Harry asked.

"It gave me the perfect excuse to kill myself." Lucas said simply. "The Albany handover lit a fuse that I had been building for months, I knew that I didn't have much time. For all the planning that had gone into the actual event, I hadn't spent nearly enough time worrying about what was going to happen next...I got the information that I wanted but I also got found out. I had to disappear, in such a way that left them confident that they didn't have to change any of their plans, which would have been catastrophic. I had given up everything to ensure that this would work. It almost seemed to poetic and too ironic that I committed suicide at the end of it. There was no way that they could argue with that, no way I could ever pass on their secrets or compromise their network. I had to die. The only way that they would believe that, was if you believed it..."

"And you knew that because of the Albany scandal that information would never be made public...The only people who would know were the ones who had to..." Harry murmured softly.

Everything had fallen into place, everything made sense. Nothing had been left out and the only conclusion to this was that it was the truth. It had been masterfully executed and he couldn't even begin to imagine the pressures that it had placed on all those involved...Probably why Malcolm had gone...Wherever it was that Malcolm had gone...

Sofia had a question however, "What about that goddamned anagram that I wasted sixteen hours of my life over?"

Lucas smiled and said, "You were my back-up. It was essentially a calling card, an invitation that I knew only you would ever receive, but I knew that it was also phrased in such a way that if someone had managed to figure out the truth about me that you would eventually join the dots and realise everything I've told you about Lighthouse. It was a bit cryptic but I needed some added insurance."

"I'm honoured." Sofia muttered darkly.

They fell into silence, everyone waiting for someone else to make the next move. Finally Lucas asked softly, "What now Harry?"

He paused. That last statement had given him more to think about than anything else. However Harry being Harry was nothing if not a born leader and he quickly decided what was going to happen next. Worst-case scenario fall back, assume it's true until forced to think otherwise.

"I'll call it in, get the team together and we'll take it from there." He told them, pulling a phone from his pocket.

"Excelent..." Lucas muttered under his breath.

"I thought this was what you wanted?" Sofia said, puzzled.

"Yes...And no." Lucas said grimly "Some of them may not take this as well as Harry."

"Wouldn't have been a queue for your funeral then?" She whispered with a grin.

"Have you met Ros?"

She smiled, they fell silent as Harry said,

"Ruth?"

"Of course, Ruth, his right hand." Sofia smirked.

"And his left." Lucas said under his breath.

"We have a _situation..." _Harry told the phone delicately.

A/N: I'm not too sure about this chapter...There's a lot going on and I'm not really sure how well it's come across and (if it makes any sense in the first place) how believable it is. As I said there was a lot to think about and it became a lot more complicated than I expected, if I've missed any gaping plot-holes do let me know and I'll try and fix them. :) As ever I'm glad to hear your views on this so good, bad or indifferent let me know what you thought.

As an aside, I'm not really sure when I'll update this, I feel like I've dug myself into a bit of a hole that I'm not too sure how to get out of :) Any suggestions would be welcome.

And yes, I know Ros is dead but frankly the season 10 characters annoyed me so, shoot me but she lives on in my head! :)


	4. Old Allegiances

**Chapter 4**

Old Allegiances

Harry had left the warehouse on the pretext of making another phone call but Lucas suspected that he wanted a chance to clear his head.

"Why this place?" Sofia asked quietly, "Out here in the middle of nowhere..." she trailed off leaving him confused. Her issues with the place were the very reasons he had picked it.

"Quiet, peaceful...It seemed perfect." She looked uncomfortable and had been on edge since her arrival. Initially he had understood but he would have expected her to relax into her usual impassive self by now. He knew her well enough to know that there was something bothering her.

"Something wrong?" he asked cautiously, just because he knew something was didn't mean that she would feel inclined to share it.

She shrugged, "It reminds me of Russia..."

He nodded slowly, seeing the similarities himself. He followed her gaze, staring out at the barren landscape surrounding them.

The door slammed into the wall behind them as it was thrown open from the outside. Lucas stepped in front of her and drew his gun. Both of them had seen the distant figure of Harry stomping around out on the marshlands and knew that it wasn't him.

Someone stood silhouetted against the doorway before closing it behind them and walking towards them, empty hands swinging loosely by their side. The figure walked calmly up to them before punching Lucas in the gut.

He choked and doubled over in pain, however as Sofia took an angry step towards his attacker he held up a hand to stop her and wheezed, "It's ok."

"No it bloody well is not 'OK'! You're dead!" The figure snapped, spitting at his feet.

"You'll be heading that way if you're not careful." Sofia whispered venomously.

"Is that a threat?"

"It's not a compliment..."

Lucas ignored their conversation as they stared daggers at each other while he used the pillar behind him to haul himself to his feet. "Where did you get a gun?" he asked Sofia reproachfully.

"Hark who's talking." She said, defensively, jerking her head at the gun in his hand. He rolled his eyes and stuffed it back into the waistband of his jeans.

"Where did you get her?"

"Nice to know what the cat's mother felt like." Sofia muttered "And who the Hell are you anyway?"

Lucas laughed soflty and winced before saying, "Sofia Fletcher, Ros Myers."

"Pleasure." Was the sarcastic, simultaneous response from both women, neither of them taking their eyes off the other. Lucas shook his head and slid down the pillar to the floor, massaging his ribs and explaining,

"Sofia and I were undercover together in Moscow. When our cover was blown we both ended up in prison. Ros is section chief at MI-5, we work together."

"Worked." Ros corrected coldly, "I came here for Harry."

"How-" Sofia began but Lucas caught her arm, a slight shake of the head on his part was enough to make her hold her tongue. She stuffed the gun back into her jeans and walked away from them, cursing them both in Russian under her breath.

"I take it that wasn't poetry..."

"Not quite." Lucas responded, a smile tugging at his lips, "Where are the others?"

"On the way I expect. I was in the field when harry called, I had the _privilege_ of getting here first..." she replied.

He nodded uncomfortable. Sofia's sudden absence had intensified the atmosphere between them. It was clear that Ros had a hundred and one things that she wanted to say to him but that she was currently having difficulty transferring them from brain to mouth in a way that would cause him the most anguish.

"Who are you?" she finally hissed in a deadly whisper.

Lucas took a deep breath and began to say something, _anything_ when Harry came in through the opening behind them.

"Good, Ros. Have you-" he began, but she cut across him curtly,

"Forget about me. 'Have you' lost your mind? A little warning would have been nice, 'Remember that bastard that threw himself off the roof? The man you all trusted until he turned out to be a back-stabbing murderer, not really dead at all, in fact he's waiting here for you'. What the Hell is going on Harry?"

"It's a long story..."

"Isn't it always?" She snapped sarcastically. "I'll settle for the abridged version at the moment."

"Just, wait a little, until the others get here, I'll explain everything then...Didn't anyone ever tell you patience was a virtue?" Harry said attempting to lighten the mood.

"They did, she's just never had any..." Lucas muttered.

Ros glared at him. The only thing that stopped her launching herself at him and making him wish he was back in Russia was harry but her patience was running thin with him too. Lucas seemed to understand,

"Look-" he tried,

"Don't." She said coldly, shaking her head, "I'm going to wait outside for the others." She told Harry who fortunately realised that this was a good idea and did not protest.

"I'll come with you." He said, Ros opened her mouth to argue, she would much prefer to be alone, but she thought better of it and nodded stiffly. The two of them walked towards the door, heads bowed in quiet conversation.

"I thought Russian prison officers were bad...She's like the one-woman KGB..." Sofia muttered darkly, she had sidled towards Lucas again in response to Harry and Ros' retreat.

"She's OK..." Lucas murmured, "She's a good person really, and she's great at what she does. She just..."

"Pissed?"

"That's the polite way of putting it..."

"How are you?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"No-one's shot me yet...I'd call that about as much as I could have hoped for given the circumstances..."

She smiled slightly and watched as he bowed his head, eyes closed, thinking. She sensed that he was not in the mood to have a deep discussion about his feelings at this time and honestly she wouldn't even begin to know how to start talking to him about them. She could only empathise with him so much in this situation, she hadn't had anyone to rely on or whom she relied upon in turn for some time and couldn't imagine the position he had forced himself in to.

She joined him on the cold floor and they sat in companionable silence, neither of them having to speak to be grateful of the other's presence. _Calm before the storm..._

...

"What are you going to tell them?" Ros asked quietly.

"Nothing." Harry sighed.

"That's playing a little fast and loose with _dear _Lucas' life isn't it?" She said smiling grimly.

"You were my biggest concern..." Harry retorted.

"I meant what I said in there Harry...You have to tell them something, you can't just let them wander in there blindly, heads will roll...literally..."

"Tell them? Tell them what?" Harry laughed humourlessly, "If I had called you and asked you to meet me at an abandoned warehouse and then informed you that Lucas was still alive what would you have thought?"

"That the ridiculous amount of whiskey you consume had finally dethatched enough of your brain cells to make you certifiably insane." She replied smoothly. She paused a moment before saying, "Why _is _he still alive Harry?"

"He's right you don't have any patience...All in good time." He said

"That's not what I meant. Why didn't you kill him...I would have..." she said darkly.

"Well that's why he told me first." Harry said with a faint stab at humour.

"Do you trust him?" she asked barely audible over the howling wind that snatched at their closed and stung their exposed flesh.

Harry hesitated and Ros murmured, "I'll take that as a no."

"No." Harry said reflexively, she widened her eyes at him and he said, "Well yes...Honestly Ros I don't know...He makes a good case but a bit of me just thinks..."

"Once a lying, murderous, back-stabbing bastard..." she muttered.

Harry smiled in spite of himself, "Not quite, if he's to be believed none of that is true."

"It's the big 'if' I'm having trouble with here."

The lapsed into silence, both of them thinking hard, analysing all of the possibilities. As they did a car came over the hill and rolled towards them.

"You need to decide how you're going to play this." Ros muttered as Ruth and Tariq stepped out of the car.

"I'm not going to play them at all." Harry replied, "They're going to walk in there and see what happens. "

"And if they take his head off?"

"Then they take his head off." Harry grimaced.

Ros smirked as Tariq and Ruth approached them.

"What's happening? Who's died?" Tariq asked cheerfully.

A/N: I think I'll leave it there, I was going to have them all meet but then I realised this chapter was stretching on a bit and I decided to leave it there. This chapter was a bit of a 'filler' while I work out the more complex aspects of the plot and while it was fun to write I'm not sure if all of my characters are 'in' character if that makes sense. Ros was particularly difficult to do so depending on that this chapter will work either very well or not at all, so let me know what you all think. Be brutal, we live to learn :)

I'm going to use the next chapter to kind of summarise everything so far and to tackle anything that I might have missed so if you think of any plot-holes that I haven't explored please let me know and I'll address them.

Finally a big thank you to all of my reviewers, as this is my first fic I've been a little nervous about it but the support has been fantastic and I'm very grateful so thank you all once again :)


	5. Accusations and Explanations

**Chapter 5**

Accusations and Explanations

"Don't look now." Sofia muttered as Lucas rose quietly to his feet, watching as his old team walked towards them. A few weeks ago he would have trusted them with his life, now he was fairly sure he could trust them to take it if given the option.

"Lucas?" Tariq breathed as Harry and Ros hung back, watching cautiously.

"You're not dead..." Ruth muttered.

"Yet..." Ros murmured.

"Afraid not..." Lucas said softly.

Ruth suddenly rounded on Harry, "You knew about this?"

"Well, I-"he began.

"You lied?" She breathed.

"No." It was Lucas who answered as Harry looked confused by this accusation, clearly misunderstanding her. "He didn't know at the time, no-one did, he thought the same thing as you...Sofia told him earlier today."

"Sofia?" Tariq said, bemused.

"Ruth..." Sofia said, slinking out from behind her pillar.

The colour drained from her face as she demanded shakily, "What the Hell is going on?"

Lucas explained, as quickly as he could, with a few additions from Harry and Sofia the truth about Russia and the reasons behind the Albany scandal.

"How did you get involved in all of this?" Ruth asked Sofia quietly.

"Lucas sent me an anagram in the form of a suicide note; it prompted me to do a little digging. I found out that he was still alive and a little of what he's just told you, I went to Harry this morning and he came here with me to meet Lucas."

"SO none of it was real? Bateman, Vaughn, the bombings in Dakar, it was all a lie?" Ruth said softly,

"Yes." Lucas said, he wanted to say more, to explain himself, to stop her from looking at him like that but he couldn't find words that didn't sound hollow.

Ruth turned away from them and shook her head in disgust. "We can talk about the moralities of what Lucas did later; we have more pressing issues at the minute." Ros said firmly.

Sofia agreed, "Yes, now everyone knows everyone else and we've decided to trust each other for the time being, what are we going to do about our little Russian problem?"

"Stop them?" Tariq suggested, lightly,

"Wonderful, and how do you propose we do that?" Ros said, quaintly.

"Same way we always do." Tariq shrugged "We have whatever Lucas got from the information trade with Albany, we shut that down and the whole thing should fall apart right?"

"No chance." Ros muttered.

"She's right." Lucas said, "This isn't a normal domino-effect operation, you can remove one link from the chain but the rest will still function. Remember this isn't some localised terror plot in London, it's global and it's been thought out for things like this, the Russians have had twenty or thirty years to work out the creases. There will be hundreds of attacks all over the world; the only ones who will notice that this particular one has failed are the Russians."

"It's your optimism that gets you out of bed in the morning isn't it?"Ros smirked, "You seem to have sold yourself a little short here Lucas, it doesn't really seem worth it when you put it like that."

"Not now with what we know, but at the time I didn't know about the scale of Lighthouse. The trade got me what's making you doubt its usefulness, the big picture, none of the individual dominoes are supposed to know each other, they're just supposed to fall over and wait and see what happens."

"OK, so, continuing with this metaphor, "Ruth began, "Each of these dominoes combine to trigger a global war with Russia pulling the strings at the centre?" Lucas nodded and she continued, "So if we can't stop the initial virus can we treat the symptoms? Reveal what Russia is doing, expose their plan and prevent war?"

"Surely they'd have back-ups against that though? The phrase 'total deniability' is springing to mind here."

"Exactly, even if we had enough proof it's a hard thing to sell." Sofia said "We found it hard enough convincing you lot, I don't fancy our chances with the rest of the world, especially not if we try and argue against Russia at the same time, it's hard enough to swallow without them writing _liars _across our foreheads."

"And besides, even if we did succeed in exposing Russia we have no idea what that might cause." Harry put in.

"So...What _do _we do?" Tariq asked cautiously.

"Let's start with what we know for certain and build up from there, Lucas; what _exactly _did Kachimov give you? Word-for-word." Harry said, taking charge.

In answer Lucas turned to Sofia, "Do you have that anagram?"

"Not on me but..." she borrowed pen and paper from Tariq and hastily scribbled it down. "What?" she said defensively as Lucas raised his eyebrows at her, "This is nothing, I _dreamt _about the damn thing...It irritated me." She said, trailing off pathetically.

Lucas chuckled softly before highlighting the last line, "Man hangs on the eve my heart lies, four o'clock."

"That's all you got?" Ros said, looking unimpressed with Kachimov's sign of good faith.

"Now you know why I thought it was meaningless. In the context of Lighthouse it probably refers to the time and date of the attack cell it corresponds to."

"What do you think Sofia?" Ruth asked watching the younger woman closely as she began reconsidering the anagram based on the new information she had been given. "As far as I can tell Lucas is right, it corresponds to a time and date of an attack. Someone else probably has the information for the target, the type of attack and, given the nature of this network, potentially the intended origin of the attack, which country we're most likely to blame for it. If I understand this then someone, the trigger, will probably have the means to contact the others and get there information, the trigger will then know what to do next..."

"It's genius." Harry muttered,

"And it's very paranoid, very Russian...The trigger can only bring the information together when told to by whoever's controlling this in Moscow, it's a chain reaction that just keeps climbing higher and higher up the greasy pole."

"So what you have, four o'clock is fairly obvious, but if the rest of the message ties into a date it's fairly sketchy." Ruth said, thinking out loud, "There's not really much you can do with this on your own."

"On that note, what else did you get from the trigger Lucas?" Harry asked "He must have gathered the information from the others to have something meaningful to trade for Albany; he must have given you all of the fragments that make up this cell."

Lucas nodded and turned to Tariq saying, "Do you have a laptop?"

"In the car, but I don't have any way of linking it back to The Grid from here." He warned.

"That won't matter." Lucas said removing a USB key from a fine chain around his neck.

Tariq nodded, understanding and left, catching the keys Ros sent his way. As he left the remaining people in the room fell silent glancing around the room in an attempt to gauge the others' thoughts.

"Do you regret not coming back after Moscow?" Ruth asked Sofia quietly, she seemed intrigued by the younger woman and her role in this.

"Yes...In a way." She began slowly, "I found it hard to _do_ anything. When you've done a job like this all your life nothing really fills the gap, nothing feels worthwhile..." She trailed off, uncomfortable, she was not usually as forthcoming with her feelings but she sensed that Ruth needed to hear what she had said.

"I know...It's strange, you miss it but at the same time you don't want it back...Like a drug..."

Sofia nodded, understanding now why Ruth had asked as she remembered that she had returned to The Grid courtesy of the generous revolving door at MI-5 and some favours called in by Harry.

Tariq returned at that moment and handed the laptop to Lucas who inserted the USB into the port and opened the file labelled 'Lighthouse'.

The others gathered around and stared in disappointment at the screen,

(1)-MAN HANGS ON THE EVE MY HEART LIES, FOUR O'CLOCK.

(1)-33,1,44,8,1,44,7,99,55,44,00,8,5,5,222,5,33,555,8,5,1,88,00,22,9,5,99,6,55,111,88,55,3,55,3,11

(2)-99,00,88,9,11,5,1,00,00,8,5,8,5,1,88,00,55,6,1,22,22,00,8,5,7,5,44,00,22,5,33,5,44,11,44,55,333

(3)-11,9,22,22,00,8,5,22,9,7,8,00,00,55,3,111,00,55,111,00,99,33,1,22,22,333,55,88,22,4,99,00,8,88,55,1,00

(4)-88,5,4,88,55,99,5,99,6,22,55,333,8,5,44,88,5,4,4,88,1,7,55,44,99,00,1,11,5,88,5,222,5,44,7,5

(5)-00,333,55,99,00,5,66,6,55,88,333,1,88,4,00,333,55,99,00,5,66,2,1,3,11,444,1,99,9,7,8,00

"Well...I'm glad your life was worth so much Lucas." Ros said, coolly.

"That's exactly what you got Lucas? You haven't changed anything?"

"No, that's what I was given, original flash-drive and everything...What are you thinking?"

"God I've missed this..." Sofia breathed, eyes flashing.

Lucas smiled and said, "You can decrypt it?"

"I think so..." she said slowly studying the screen, "If it's what I think it is it's fairly simple..." she said absently as she grabbed a pen and scribbled down the information on a piece of paper before explaining, "I've seen this before..."

"What?" Harry demanded sharply.

Sofia quickly corrected herself, "Not this exactly but I've seen this kind of cipher before...In Russia, we became very good friends although this is a little easier to focus on..." she murmured darkly. She began drawing out a table as she continued, "It's quite straightforward, every number corresponds to a letter."

"What is it, continuous counting?" Ruth asked, staring intently at the strings of numbers, "Last time I checked there wasn't thirty three letters in the alphabet."

Sofia smiled, "Close, it uses only the last digits. If you write out a table with headings of 0 through nine it's easier to see but I'll try and explain. So, A becomes 1, but so are K and U since they are the 1st 11th and 21st letters of the alphabet. B, L, V are 2's as the 2nd, 12th and 22nd letters, C, M, W are 3's as the 3rd 13th and 23rd letters and so on...If you accept that then your 33 refers to the letter M, the two threes represent the fact that in its' set of three M is the second in the sequence, so 3 would correspond to C and 333 would be W." She said, pointing to the letters she had inserted into the rough table on the page in front of her, "Anyone with a vague understanding of these things could solve this given enough time, if I hadn't recognised I could still have worked it out since they've been kind enough to give me the first line twice in different forms."

Tariq clarified, "Right, they've given you the code and the solution allowing you to work backwards to find the key."

Sofia smiled and nodded; she ripped out several sheets of paper and handed them to him saying, "Congratulations, you can help." He grinned and fished a pen out of his pocket before accepting the alphabet table she handed him.

"Talk among yourselves, we won't be a minute." Sofia mumbled.

Tariq and Sofia retreated to a quiet corner to allow the rest of the group to talk without disturbing them.

"So, what do we do?" Ros asked, "Even if we can solve the codes and figure out what they mean that's only one cell out of hundreds. Lucas is right, one link isn't going to break the chain, it's too well thought out."

"I don't know Ros." Harry said, honestly, "But all of the attacks _must _be linked in some way, even if they're not completely dependent on each other."

"Exactly, even if we can't stop it by shutting down one cell and destroying the others, we may be able to determine what they're planning based on that." Ruth said slowly.

Ros was leaning against a pillar, unable to keep still as she glanced across at Tariq and Sofia; she suddenly stood up and headed for the door saying,

"Call me if anything interesting happens..."

Harry made to protest but Ruth placed a placating hand on his arm and he allowed her to leave without question.

Lucas, looking between the two, got up and walked slowly to the other side of the ware house giving them the privacy they hadn't needed until they had it.

"How are you?" Harry asked, concerned, thinking that Ruth would probably take particularly badly to Lucas' resurrection considering what he had done to her.

"I'm...I can't lie to you Harry I-"she began, looking at him initially before breaking their eye-contact and turning away unable to explain her feelings to him.

He didn't need her to voice her concerns to know them however, for all the fact that he came across as awkward and uncertain around her he understood her, he just couldn't understand how best to reveal that to her.

"He was never going to kill you Ruth." Harry said, softly.

"Really? Not for lack of trying it seems." She snapped, unconvinced. "I don't trust him Harry...Even if you accept his reasoning and believe him, it was Hell of a leap and I just..."

"I know-"he began.

"No, no you don't know, you've just forgiven him, forgotten everything because he's given you a good enough excuse-"

"I haven't forg-"Harry tried again,

"You have Harry; you've just welcomed him back into our midst without question. You've always been too trusting of him Harry, I'm not trying to belittle what he went through but the time he spent in Russia doesn't give him Carte Blanche to run riot here, get away with whatever he likes and have your trust whenever he asks for it."

"It's not as simple as you're making it out to be." Harry said, troubled, "I haven't and don't trust him unconditionally, but at the moment we have to deal with this and that requires me to give him a certain amount of leeway but I haven't forgotten what he's done and I certainly haven't forgiven him, after this is done-"

"Things will go back to the way they were." She muttered coldly, turning away from him.

"No." He said, "Ruth look at me," She did, "I-I understand what he did to you, and your reservations about him...If, If he had hurt you, if he had, he could have told me that, that aliens from outer space were planning on blowing up Earth and I wouldn't have cared I would have killed him on the spot I can promise you that...And I can promise you that I don't trust him nearly as much as I pretend to...Whatever his reasons a betrayal like this can't be, _won't _be forgotten about, however this plays out."

"But in the meantime we just act like one big happy family." She sighed, getting to her feet.

"Ruth, what do you want me to do?" he asked, frustrated, also standing.

"I don't know Harry...Just, _listen..._" she said, exasperated, walking towards the entrance and clearly ending their conversation. She passed Ros on the way out of the door; she walked towards Harry and said,

"You're the most competent fool I've ever met Harry Pearce."

"I-"he began

"Am useless...All she wanted you to do was listen to her concerns, she doesn't trust Lucas and for good reason."

"I did, I told her-"

"Lies. What you thought she wanted to hear...You could never lie to any of us Harry, including yourself, and the sooner you learn that the better..." Ros told him sharply." She knows as well as I do that you've forgiven Lucas, I'm beginning to myself the charming bugger," she muttered, "She'll get there, she just needs time and people that she _can _trust in the meantime..."

At that moment Sofia and Tariq joined them and Harry seized the opportunity to end the conversation with both hands, he could understand corrupt politicians and deluded dictators, presidents with a rose tinted view on the world and hardened terrorists but not that one woman...

"What have we got?" he asked in a rush.

"A problem..." Sofia told him bluntly.

A/N: I hope this made sense, I have bits of paper with tables and numbers wallpapering my house but it was difficult to put down in words so I hope that came across as I had expected. I'm not sure if I've managed to get the balance between characterisation and plotline so let me know how you think that's going. I would also welcome any suggestions on the characters feelings and interactions, at this point I'm working mainly off instinct here and the chemistry between them is important so please give me your thoughts on that.

I think I've worked out where this is going, how plausible this is remains to be seen but the next update should be up fairly soon, I hope you're enjoying it so far though and thank you once again for your feedback.


	6. Belief

**Chapter 6**

Belief

"_What have we got?" he asked in a rush. _

"_A problem..." Sofia told him bluntly. _

"How so?" Harry asked warily, not sure if he wanted an answer.

"In the interest of clarity? We have none. Whatever, if anything we can learn from this will fall under the heading of educated guesswork."

She spread a sheet of paper will the consolidated solutions to the codes in front of them,

(1).33,1,44,8,1,44,7,99,55,44,00,8,5,5,222,5,33,555,8,5,1,88,00,22,9,5,99,6,55,111,88,55,3,55,3,11

= MAN HANGS ON THE EVE MY HEART LIES, FOUR O'CLOCK

(2).99,00,88,9,11,5,1,00,00,8,5,8,5,1,88,00,55,6,1,22,22,00,8,5,7,5,44,00,22,5,33,5,44,11,44,55,333

=STRIKE AT THE HEART OF ALL THE GENTLEMEN KNOW

(3).11,9,22,22,00,8,5,22,9,7,8,00,00,55,3,111,00,55,111,00,99,33,1,22,22,333,55,88,22,4,99,00,8,88,55,1,00

=KILL THE LIGHT TO CUT OUR SMALL WORLD'S THROAT

(4). 88,5,4,88,55,99,5,99,6,22,55,333,8,5,44,88,5,4,4,88,1,7,55,44,99,00,1,11,5,88,5,222,5,44,7,5

=RED ROSES FLEE WHEN RED DRAGONS TAKE REVENGE

(5).00,333,55,99,00,5,66,6,55,88,333,1,88,4,00,333,55,99,00,5,66,2,1,3,11,444,1,99,9,7,8,00

=TWO STEP FORWARD TWO STEP BACK. X AS HINDSIGHT

"OK, so we think (1) Is the time and date of the attack." Tariq began, taking a deep breath. "That we already guessed, the rest, (2) we think is the target (3) looks like it refers to _what _the attack actually is. (4) is the country of origin, the one that will mostly likely be blamed for the attack and (5)...I'm not too sure but Sofia thinks..." he trailed off waiting for her to jump in and explain, which she did,

"Sofia thinks (5) is a code, something that is used to give _something _else..."

"Well I'm glad Sofia cleared that up for you Tariq, that's very helpful." Ros smirked.

"At the moment it doesn't need to be, I don't think it directly impacts this specific attack."

"OK, so upon deciphering them can we, _decipher_ them?" Harry asked. "Have you thought any more about the meaning of the information you received Lucas, the time and date?"

"Yes." Lucas said, "I may be wrong but at the moment it's all we have to go on...Something Kachimov said to me when he gave me it initially, 'three days after your release and your heart is already telling you to lie to the people that gave it to you'. I didn't give it much thought at the time but I'm beginning to wonder of its significance now..."

"If it did correspond to the date of your release when would that match up with in this year?"

"I was released four days from today, based on the riddle that would mean that this attack is in three days."

"And what about this attack, what have you got from the other codes?" Harry asked, now directing his words at Tariq and Sofia.

"The easiest one to interpret is (4)" Sofia began, however she did not explain fully, waiting to see if they were all of a similar opinion.

"Red roses flee when red dragons take revenge." Ruth murmured to herself, "Red dragons, China?" She suggested, Sofia nodded in agreement, "Red roses..."

"Britain?" Ros asked.

Tariq nodded, "That's what we thought as well..."

"Which would mean that Britain is the target of this attack, meaning that (2) refers to us as well." Harry said.

"Strike at the heart of all the gentlemen know." Sofia began, "If 'gentlemen' is intended to mean Britain then what is at the heart of all we know?"

There was silence for a moment as they all considered this until Lucas breathed, "God..."

"What?"Harry asked sharply.

"MI-5..." he whispered, "We're the intelligence service at the heart of Britain, at the heart of all we know, they're targeting MI-5 directly..."

"Shit." Ros muttered.

"That means that at least one other member of this cell is directly involved with MI-5." Harry said slowly.

Ruth attempted to refocus the group saying slowly, "OK, OK so they're targeting MI-5 but with what?"

"(3), Kill the light to cut our small world's throat." Tariq muttered.

"So what is that?" Ros asked softly.

"When I say 'small world what's the first thing that comes to mind?" Sofia asked slowly.

"Disneyland." Ros said instantly at the same time Tariq shrugged,

"The internet."

Sofia smiled and turned apologetically to Ros, "I'm more inclined to go with Tariq on this one."

"SO they're going to shut down our networks?" Lucas said quietly, bringing the group back to reality, "They kill MI-5 on an electronic level."

"Everything we have is on that network, taking into account the fact that this is an inside job they'll probably be able to shut down our back-ups. They're effectively shutting us down..." Ruth breathed.

"Exactly." Lucas muttered, "It's genius, they shut us down first and then launch more attacks on the country while we sit back and watch..."

"But we have an advantage over them." Harry interrupted, already planning a way out of this, "We know what they're going to do, we can stop this, keep ourselves running and counter whatever else they're planning in Britain." He was about to start issuing orders and getting his team moving when he was interrupted.

"No." Sofia said quietly, "We shouldn't stop them, we should let them."

"Just allow Russia to cripple our intelligence system and potentially destroy this country? Are you mad?"

"That's not the technical term for it but hear me out. In order to pull this off it's going to take some serious skill and man-power, it's not as simple as just pulling a plug out of the wall and watching us flounder, an external hack can't completely shut us down, neither can they wipe our files, there are systems in place to prevent that correct?" Tariq nodded, though he didn't seem to see where she was going anymore than anyone else, "That means that they can only contain and restrict, it achieves the same thing as pulling the plug but they can't keep it up indefinitely and they need people and systems constantly sitting in our networks, they act as a kind of torrent if you like, they restrict our system through their own, take all of our files and control access via their own, it becomes even more complex if they're planning to leave China's fingerprints over everything."

"Yes, you're right but I still don't see-" Tariq began.

"I do." Ros said softly, a small smile was spreading across her face as she turned to Sofia and said, "To achieve something like this they're going to have to leave themselves exposed, vulnerable to a physical counter attack, giving us an opportunity"

"That seems a little lapse judgment wise, you'd think they would put things in place to prevent that." Ruth said.

"Why would they?" Lucas put in, "We're not supposed to know about this, as far as they're concerned we should be sitting helpless wondering how, who and what is going on."

"Even so, it's a big gambol and if it doesn't pay off the payout is war." Harry pointed out grimly.

"I don't see as we've got any choice." Sofia replied firmly," There's no point in saving Britain if we're going to end up in the middle of a war despite that, if we take the risk however..."

"It's too much." Harry protested, "Lighthouse will be a highly classified operation, exposed or not you there's no way we could access it externally, you would need to get inside the Russian embassy and access a high level computer, which is going to take an initial distraction, which is risky in itself a Hell of a lot of luck and even then there's no guarantee we'll improve this situation."

"Right little ray of sunshine Harry aren't you, glad to see some things don't change." Sofia said, Harry opened his mouth to protest further but she spoke first, "If we succeed in stopping all of the attacks planned for Britain in the great scheme of things it won't make a difference. We're responsible for worrying about the global welfare in this which goes against every gut instinct you possess but self-preservation isn't good enough here. Just because we protect Britain from the initial trigger attacks that doesn't grant us immunity from the fallout of the rest of Lighthouse. We have an advantage here, an opportunity that we can't share with anyone else without unleashing God knows what, we need to roll the dice Harry...If we can get into the embassy and get access to a computer with decent clearance I think we'll get in."

"What makes you so sure?" Harry asked, still reluctant to agree with her even though he knew she was right.

"An operation like Lighthouse, it's a network, no matter how paranoid the Russians are there must be some sort of communication between the triggers on some level, they can't be completely blind to each other. Even if it's a back-door, a last resort option, someone _has _to know about the big picture. It's too risky not to."

"You're thinking that there must be an option to pull the plug?" Tariq said,

"Yes, this is an all in bet for Russia there's no middle ground, they either win or they lose. This operation can't half-work." Sofia said, nodding.

"So the same thing goes for us." Lucas said, "If we're going to stop this we have to kill it."

"_If _we were going to do this, what would we need?" Harry asked reluctantly.

"You would need to distract whoever's computer you want to use, the higher the clearance, the better, we would need something that would get him away from his desk for at least a few minutes, between five and ten I would say..." Tariq began, thinking out loud, "Then a flash-drive to plug in to copy the data onto, but bearing in mind how paranoid this network is you probably want someone with a decent memory in there as a back-up."

"Congratulations Lucas." Ros said, smiling.

"Is that wise?" Ruth murmured darkly, without thinking.

"From a memory point of view it is...His is practically photographic." Ros pointed out.

"It's not the memory I don't trust."" Ruth said bluntly.

"I understand that you don't trust me Ruth, quite frankly the feelings mutual. "Lucas said in a low voice, "But if you think about it, what do I stand to gain from helping you? I could have moved to Barbados and sat on a beach sipping cocktails before the world ended...I chose to sacrifice everything I had to give us a chance at this...Meanwhile I fully expected at least one of you to attempt to put a bullet in me because you felt hard-done by..When I put it like that tell me, who has the most cause to mistrust the other?" he asked softly, "I'm not asking you to marry me Ruth, I'm not even asking you to trust me. All I'm asking is that you respect me enough to put aside personal feelings and do what needs to be done because logic and reason are telling you it's the right thing to do."

"If this goes South I can always shoot him in the head Ruth it's no problem." Ros said tonelessly.

Lucas flicked his eyes in her direction, as their eyes met she winked at him and smirked, he smiled back and they waited.

"Alright, Lucas should go...Since we're going to the Russian embassy it would probably be handy to have someone there who speaks _Russian." _Harry said flatly, making a decision that everyone understood to be final.

"Someone else will have to go with him, preferably someone with an understanding of codes..." Tariq said pointedly looking at Sofia, who shrugged to indicate that she would be happy with that.

"No." Harry said, reflexively, five pairs of eyes focussed on him and he said "It's too risky-" he said, without thinking, while everyone else looked away, knowing his mistake Sofia coldly held his gaze and forced him to look at her while she said in a deadly whisper,

"But it wasn't too risky to send me to Moscow?" a dense silence settled upon the group as she got slowly to her feet, never breaking eye contact and continued, her voice was perfectly flat and empty of emotion but the effect was more impressive than if she had been screaming at him "I have been beaten, raped and tortured more times than you've had glasses of Scotch _don't_ patronize me." He refused to look away from her, regarding her enough to grant her that, "If you don't trust me, for whatever reason, at least have the balls to tell me. The world is balancing on a knife edge and the only chance for it is the fact that we respect each other enough to work together. Don't lie to me Harry."

She turned away from him, finally breaking the eye contact between them as she wandered out onto the marshes, unable to stay in the room aware that everyone was watching her silently.

"Let's take a break." Harry muttered.

Ros made to go after Sofia, the young woman was feisty and she could see something of herself in her but she was also wonderfully mysterious and she intrigued Ros.

"Don't." Lucas said quietly.

"Why?" Ros asked calmly.

"She doesn't trust you." Lucas said bluntly, "She'll think you're trying to pry." Ros opened her mouth to protest but he saw where she was going and headed her off, "Even if you're not it won't matter..Sofia was mistrustful _before _Russia, it hasn't improved her paranoia...Let me go."

Ros nodded, "Smart woman." She said, "It would be nice if you could get her back on side Lucas because quite frankly I'm ready to crunch something other than numbers and she's the only one that seems to have any idea what's going on here."

Lucas smiled, Ros' brutal honesty was one of the things that made her good at her job, she could deliver a lie in exactly the same way and no-one would doubt her.

Lucas stepped out into the fresh air, despite the fact that the howling wind felt as though it was trying to strip search him with its prying fingers he realised that he should have left the claustrophobic warehouse a long time ago.

He could see Sofia standing alone on the moorland, she had finally stopped some distance away from the grim, oppressive building behind them and was staring into the distance, her muscles tensed despite her calm appearance. He walked towards her while still keeping his distance, they were close enough to speak but not close enough that she would feel he was invading.

"I hate this..." She said softly. He said nothing, knowing that she was struggling to speak as it was, "Not being trusted..."

"I know..."

"They believe us Lucas, they've swallowed everything we've sold them and still..."

"Believing that we're telling the truth isn't the same as trusting us..." he said quietly.

"It's..."

"I know, but they have good reason."

"Do they?"

"I lied to them, betrayed them, pretended I was dead..."

"But _you _had good reason so surely that makes everything OK?"

"It-What argument are you making?"

"I don't know...I just don't know how this can work if they don't trust us..."

"Like you said, they respect us and the situation enough to work with us."

"They're calling all the shots, you can't trust someone when it suits and then push them away...They should either decide that they can trust you because really, if you think about it, you haven't given them any unexplained reasons not to or they should have shot you in the head."

"I'm glad to see everything's so clear cut for you." He said smiling slightly,

"That's not the point Lucas, they're playing with us, giving us so much freedom before pulling us back in...I don't want to be used."

"I understand...They're not using us...Not intentionally, Harry gets up in the morning gets dressed and grabs his paranoia with his car keys, he has to think about his team and the implications for them, he was the one that set this up...he feels responsible."

"Too true, I was trusted more by FSB prison officers in Russia." She muttered darkly, "I won't be lied to Lucas..."

"I know, but you can't force someone to trust you."

"I have a gun I'm sure we could try..." she said in an off-hand voice.

"Come on, one way or the other this needs done, they'll trust us eventually it'll just take time, and you're coming across as the definition of hypocrisy here given that you wouldn't exactly be willing to allow any of them to so much as post letters for you."

"That's different, I have a legitimate reason for that."

"Really? What's that?"

"...They mistrusted me first."

He laughed as they walked back towards the warehouse, Sofia seemed reluctant to be swallowed by it once more but she allowed herself to be ushered inside where upon she slid down the large pillar to the floor and closed her eyes, listening to the soft sound of footsteps as the others moved around them, Harry approached Sofia and knelt down beside her. She flinched as he brushed her hand but opened her eyes and otherwise ignored the contact,

"Sofia, I apologise, I understand your concerns and I would not appreciated being lied to either..."

"Then we have an understanding?" She said quietly, her piercing eyes making him feel as though his very soul was being x-rayed.

"We do."

She nodded slowly and he straightened. She also got to her feet as the others approached,

"Ros, would you be willing to go with Lucas to the embassy?" Harry asked calmly.

"Of course." She said delicately her eyes flicking to Sofia momentarily, just long enough to catch sight of her impassive expression before she turned back to Harry.

"Just like old times." Lucas said smiling at Ros.

She had chosen that moment to reposition the gun at her hip and the effect was perfect as she replied, "Russia's fucked."

A/N: I hope this all makes sense so far and is at least semi-believable. To say I'm going at this blind is a bit of an understatement, Google can only be of so much help and I'm finding myself sympathising with the writers a lot, (although in saying that nothing justifies Lucas' character assassination in 9) I've found that it's quite easy to dig a deep intriguing hole, it's not so easy to get out so I hope I'll somehow manage it. As to the characters, while it's very fun to write from everyone's point of view and think about how this affects them personally some of them have tested me a bit (yes you Ros Myers!) anyway, enough about my insecurities, I hope you're enjoying this so far :)

As ever your reviews and views are greatly appreciated and I would like to know your thoughts on this chapter, good, bad or ugly :)


	7. Stressed to the Nines

**Chapter 7**

Stressed to the Nines

It was ten to four on the day of the attack, Ros and Lucas were dressed in their finery and both were mentally going over the plan. Ros stood stock still, eyes closed, attempting to do nothing but breathe; Lucas was absently playing with the small flash drive in his pocket.

"Lucas, Ros, can you hear me?" Tariq's voice interrupted the tranquillity they were currently standing in.

"Loud and clear." Ros answered for both of them as Lucas nodded.

"Good so we're all clear, we're going to go in there and-"

"Tariq." Sofia's voice growled sharply, "We have been over this a hundred times in three days...If they died their corpses would be able to get up and do it themselves."

"Sorry." Tariq muttered, suitably chastised.

"She's a handful..." Ros muttered to Lucas, smirking.

"You've only just realised?" He replied, grinning.

"Amelin's in his office, you're good to go." Tariq interrupted.

Together they began to climb the bright, white steps into the embassy, walking smoothly and calmly, looking as though they belonged.

"You know that old expression, 'weight of the world on your shoulders'" Ros murmured to Lucas as they made their way up a second set of polished wooden stairs inside, he chuckled as she continued, "I feel fully justified in using that now..."

* * *

"Are you sure Amelin's going to take the bait?" Tariq asked anxiously,

"It's a little late for that now." Ruth hissed.

Sofia was more reassuring, "Ivan and I go way back, he's a self-centred selfish bastard, he won't be able to avoid doing what we want...Our bait is very persuasive..."

They were distracted by Lucas' voice, "Shit..."

* * *

"What?" Ros demanded, hesitating on the top stair, "

"My wire's cut out." He explained, delicately removing it from his shirt sleeve, "Go on, I'll only be a second." He said, ducking into a nearby bathroom.

Ros proceeded down the corridor explaining the situation to the others as she entered a second, open lobby area that led through to the offices.

"I have an appointment with Mr. Amelin." Ros told the young woman behind the desk.

"Ms Healy and Mr?" She began, looking around for Lucas.

"He's been temporarily detained, urgent phone call." Ros improvised smoothly, "We can begin now, he'll be with us in a few minutes."

"Of course, one moment please Miss."Ros waited anxiously and inwardly cursed Lucas as the receptionist jabbered at the phone in Russian, their comms were not sensitive enough for Sofia or Ruth to translate for her and she could only understand a fraction of what was said.

"Come through, Mr. Amelin is waiting for you in his private office, down the corridor, last door on your left, Room 6." The secretary finally informed her.

"Thank you." Ros replied crisply, escorting herself to the door and pushing it open before confidently striding into the large ornately furnished room.

* * *

"Anything from Lucas?" Harry asked, anxiously.

"Nothing yet, we'll just have to hope that Ros can manage without being able to talk to him."

They fell silent to listen to their conversation on the other end of the wire,

* * *

"Mr Amelin? Jess Healy, pleasure." She said, introducing herself to the large, pale man behind the desk.

"The pleasure is entirely mine. "He replied, he had a lightly accented, rich fruity voice that made her feel instantly uncomfortable, "I thought someone would be with you?" he said, gesturing vaguely at the empty seat beside her.

"My colleague has been held up, urgent phone call, unavoidable I'm afraid, he won't be a moment but in the meantime let me assure you that I can take comfortably take care of myself and our little business proposition," she said coolly, not taking kindly to the sexist implication that she needed Lucas to hold her hand.

I'm sure that you can..." he simpered, looking at her in a way that made her feel physically sick, "In that case, feel free to proposition me." He smirked, leaning back in his chair.

"I am here, as I'm sure you are aware, on behalf of the British government to-"she began calmly before being rudely interrupted.

A gunshot shattered the glass in the window behind them along with the calm tense of the room.

* * *

Lucas had finally succeeded in replacing the delicate wiring in the ear-piece, hastily replacing it and cursing he left the bathroom and headed down the corridor to the Amelin's office.

He had just rounded the corner into the airy lobby when he yelled in pin as the comm. Screeched in his ear, unable to cope with the deafening sound of a gunshot exploding from Amelin's office.

"Ros?" He said, sharply, jamming the comm. Back into his ear as pandemonium ensued around him.

"Ros, talk to me."

The empty buzz filled his ear, for whatever reason she was not answering...

* * *

A second gunshot rang out, Ros and Amelin had both sought the shelter of the floor at the first shot but that apparently had not deterred their attacker. Ros watched as the chunk of splintered wood from Amelin's polished oak desk landing on the floor in front of her, evidence that, had he not ducked out of the way the second bullet had been very close to finding its target.

She grabbed Amelin's arm and began to pull him out from behind the desk, "Move." She growled leading him towards the door, he obeyed without question.

Before leaving the room she turned a caught a glimpse of the clock perched on the mantelpiece, two minutes past four. _Come on Lucas..._

* * *

Lucas ran down the corridor towards the source of the commotion, the terrified people he was weaving in and out of should have questioned why he was heading in the wrong direction but no-one cared enough at present to challenge him, for which he was grateful.

He kept looking around for Ros but knew that he could not go hunting for her, she was not his priority, she would just have to fend for herself, probably not something that she was altogether too cut up about.

Amidst the chaos he slipped easily into the office, it felt as though he had fallen through a window into a parallel universe, the thick walls absorbed all sound from the warzone the attack had created in the corridor outside. The only noise that was filtering through the forcibly opened window was the occasional sound of traffic and the over-enthusiastic thrush that was, somehow, still perched on the tree just beyond the window.

He smiled to himself as he crossed the room, the ballsy little bird reminded him of Ros, a comparison that accurate or not, she would not take well to. As he made his way to the desk he examined the grand, circular room. The shattered glass from the window lay beneath the sill like cheap diamonds strewn across the floor. The ricochet from a stray bullet had caught the handsome desk and dented the smooth, white wall behind it before falling to the carpet, hidden in its thick depths. He knew that, had Ros or Amelin been seated at the desk, the bullet could not have failed to hit them, however he could see no sign that either of them had been injured thought the dark carpet could easily conceal any blood drops...

Forcing himself to forget about Ros he stared as he hunched over the desk, ignoring the plump armchair beside it and stared at the computer screen. He was pleased to see that Amelin was still logged on already, apparently when being shot at one's main priority was not to shut down their computer.

Evidence of the ongoing assault on MI-5's network was visible from the fact that encryption software that would usually have alerted someone to the access, and prevented them from finding a classified file like Lighthouse allowed him to find it with a simple search.

However when he attempted to access the file, his luck ran out.

PASS CODE: The computer demanded stubbornly.

"Shit." He muttered, pulling the USB from his pocket and inserting it into the empty port.

"Lucas?" the voice in his ear made him jump, apparently the comm was still working, to a degree at least.

"Harry-"

"What happened Lucas? Are you alright?" Harry asked sharply.

"I'm fine; I need a pass code to access the Lighthouse file."

"How many digits?" Sofia asked, as he attempted to force the file to copy onto the flash-drive without opening it.

"37." He replied, anxiously watching the screen. "It won't let me copy the file without opening it, we need that code."

"Shouldn't be a problem...If I'm right." Sofia muttered, he could hear her scribbling frantically with a pen "I started dissecting the messages, all of them had the same number of digits, thirty seven, that's too much of a coincidence not to be related..." she explained, "The fifth riddle that we couldn't work out? I think it gives us a way to combine the others to form one pass code, that way the only person in the cell that can access it is the trigger...Let's see, if you lay them out, one on top of the other there are four lines, each digit matching up with the ones below it..."

"So what are you supposed to do with them now?" Tariq asked, "Two step forward, two step back, X as hindsight, what does it mean?"

"Add the first two, subtract the second two?" she suggested airily, "My guess is that every cell will have different instructions in their fifth code but that they will all be contrived to give the same answer...The X as hindsight I think has a twofold meaning, the last digits are multiplied before being combined and that then tells you which numbers to replace with letters..."

Lucas waited; anxiously tapping his fingers on the desk watching as the irritating little clock opposite him mockingly seemed to speed up as the seconds trickled by.

"Anything from Ros?" he asked, more to keep himself from running out of the room and attempting to find her, to try and use up the adrenaline coursing through him.

"Nothing yet, Tariq's still trying her, we'll keep you informed." Harry said in clipped tones, his short answer was the only thing that betrayed his fear for her.

"Lucas." Sofia interjected "Try this-"

"It doesn't fill me with confidence when you say 'try'." He teased, removing the keyboard from the tray under the desk.

"It should." She retorted, "33F73H22J32M24C46A01G22A57H0 1B01D91A3."

"I'm in."

* * *

"Harry." Tariq called from the other side of the room as they congratulated Sofia "I've got her."

Harry hurried over," Ros?"

"I'm OK...Lucas?"

"He's in Amelin's office now." Harry said carefully, he knew that the situation she was in called for them to keep comms to a minimum.

They heard more gunshots explode over the comms before Ros said, "Harry I-"

* * *

Ros ducked instinctively as the sound of a bullet shattering a window rang through the air, it was nowhere near her but instinct took over in a situation like this.

Someone suddenly grabbed her arm and painfully wrenched her round to face them, she found herself far closer to Amelin than she would ever wish to be as he whispered "What is going on?"

"You need me to spell it out for you?" she snarled, pulling her arm free, "We are being shot at."

"Why?" he hissed.

"If I knew that it wouldn't be happening." She retorted.

"Really? You call this a coincidence?" he sneered.

"What do you call it?" she snapped.

"Distraction." He hissed, dangerously.

"If you think I asked my government to aim a sniper at my head so we could spend some quality time crouched together in your lobby then I don't think you should be allowed out in public unsupervised." She snarled.

"This isn't a plan to give your colleague access to my office?" he asked shrewdly.

"I thought that's what I just said."

"I don't believe you _Miss Healy." _He whispered.

"_If _it was, I would have come up with a more elegant solution than this." She said, as someone screamed and a door to their left burst open, people and the sounds of gunshots spilling from it.

"Really? Well why don't we go and see?" he leered.

"If you want to redecorate your office with the contents of your skull be my guest." She breathed, pulling a phone from her inside pocket, "My brain will not be making a contribution."

"I think not, you're coming." She told her through clenched teeth, she felt the unmistakeable touch of the cold barrel of a gun being pressed into the small of her back," Who are you calling?" she demanded, forcing her to her feet.

"Someone who can give us information." She replied, barely breathing, as she made to hang up.

"No, call them; I would very much like some _information_." He sneered, steering them towards the corridor his office was located on.

"Angel? Yes it's Jess, what the Hell's happening at the Russian embassy?" Ros asked calmly as they began to walk down the corridor.

* * *

"It's Ros." Ruth told Harry shortly, "She's speaking on an open line, coded conversation..." she warned them.

"Are you there now Jess?" Ruth asked.

"Yes, I'm here, there I mean." She replied, walking as slowly as she dared.

"Amelin's with her." Ruth translated in an undertone.

"How bad's it looking? How many people have been injured?"

"I'd say at least three, maybe more."

* * *

"Lucas. Ros and Amelin are on their way back." Tariq's voice informed him urgently.

Lucas swore softly under his breath, "How long have I got?"

* * *

'How long?' Tariq mouthed.

"Has someone called an ambulance yet?" Ruth asked cautiously,

"About two minutes ago." Came the reply.

* * *

"Lucas you've got about two minutes, memorise what you can now and get out, forget the copy."

"No, we might make it, and someone's given me a very convenient escape route," he said, glancing at the shattered window, "I'll stay, keep me updated."

* * *

"What's going on at your end?" Ros asked, "Are you sending people?"

"Yes but at the moment it looks like the ambulance will get there first." Ruth told her, hoping to convey that they weren't sure how much Lucas would get.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Where are you?"

"About a minute and vodka away from a nervous breakdown." She replied, forcing a laugh.

* * *

"Lucas! Get out now, you've got less than a minute." Harry barked, with about as much success as Tariq,

"No, I can make it; stall him for a few seconds." He said, still scrolling through the file, desperate to at least have the chance to memorise all of it, even if it wouldn't copy.

* * *

"Jess, you're not injured are you?" Ruth checked.

"No, no, I'm fine..." she replied

"Thank God...Sounds like it was close, lucky you were a little later in..." Ruth said, meaning for Ros to hold Amelin up if she could.

Ros stumbled suddenly, her foot sliding in her high heels that did not respond well to the thick carpets. She felt the gun digging into her back as she tittered, "Oh, sorry..."

"What happened?" Ruth demanded sharply.

"Nothing Angel, I'm alright, these damn shoes are killing me that's all..."

"Amelin's pressuring her; she's in trouble of some sort." Ruth told them quietly as Ros continued,

"Ambulance shouldn't be long now...I think I can hear it."

* * *

"Lucas go! They're outside." Harry snarled.

"Two seconds." Lucas growled as the download inched up, he was still hastily flicking through the information, not bothering to process it, just attempting to memorise it.

"No seconds, out now!"

Lucas jumped as the polished brass handle on the door was rattled from the outside.

* * *

"Open it..." Amelin hissed, praying that Lucas had left, but sure that she could still hear someone inside, Ros tried the handle.

* * *

Ruth jumped as a gunshot erupted from one of the speaker's instantly killing any sound in the room.

"Lucas?" Harry called.

"Ros?"

The dead silence filled the room, expanding and draining them. The solitary word flashing on the monitor that Ruth had been using to call Ros was an ominous symbol as to what was happening, DISCONNECTED...

A/N: I'm not sure about this, the 'scene switching' works much better visually but I think that if it works with this chapter I could actually be quite happy with it. I promise I won't leave you hanging with that cliff-hanger for long :)

In the meantime let me thank you again for your support and your reviews and, as always, ask for your feedback on this chapter.


	8. Understanding Breeds Compassion

**Chapter 8**

Understanding Breeds Compassion

"Lucas!" Harry tried again.

"Harry?"

"Lucas thank God, are you alright? What the Hell happened." Harry demanded.

"I could hear Amelin outside, I didn't have time to shut everything down, I fired a shot to buy time, I got out but with what I don't know."

"We did warn you..." Ruth began, "What about the computer, they can't know we had access-"

"That's what I shot."

"No evidence..." Harry muttered, "Good..."

"What about Ros?" Lucas asked quietly.

"We don't know...she hasn't been in contact, her comms are down." Harry said evasively. "I take it you didn't see her." Harry asked.

"No." He said bluntly, "I couldn't exactly hang around in the room to wait for her." He growled, feeling guilty and trying to convince himself as much as Harry.

"I know Lucas." Harry said quietly, understanding "Head back to us, let's see what we have."

"What about Ros? I won't leave without her." Lucas protested, already making his way around the building to the front entrance.

"There's nothing you can do for her Lucas, as you've already pointed out you can't just go wandering back into Amelin's office looking for her."

"I can't just leave her in there with him." He growled, every fibre of his being rejecting Harry's order, "Sofia you know what he's like-"he said, changing tact.

"I do Lucas but the information you got is our priority right now, we can't afford to lose that memory stick, or your head for that matter." She told him, he began to argue but she headed him off saying coldly, "Ros will just have to deal with it. Get back here or I'll come down there and get you myself." She snapped, disconnecting their contact.

Knowing he had no choice did not stop him from hating himself as he ducked into a car and headed back.

Tariq had set up a 'home from home' in the warehouse that was separate from The Grid but nevertheless functional. After discovering, to their surprise, that they could set up a secure internet connection there was no reason to relocate from the desolate moorland.

"See what you can get from this." Lucas told Tariq shortly before slumping against the cold floor in a corner removed from the group.

Sofia walked over to him, handing a steaming mug before joining him on the floor.

"What is it?" he asked, taking a sip without waiting for an answer.

"Arsenic." She told him flatly. He spat it out in spite of himself and she laughed before saying "Tea. Makes everything seem better..."

"Hmm." He grunted, taking another more cautious sip.

"You didn't do anything wrong." She whispered, dropping the pretence, placing a hand on his arm.

"Then why do I feel guilty?" he asked, turning tortured eyes on her and rejecting her touch, pulling himself away from the contact.

"Because that's who you are, Lucas North, the lone ranger, thinks he can save the world and everyone in it alone."

"Hello kettle, this is pot, by the way you're black." He said sarcastically, in no mood for her to analyse, accurately, his personality and how it reflected on his behaviour.

"Lucas she-"

"Should have been back by now." He broke in, unable to contain himself any longer.

"She's not a bus Lucas; you can't expect her to just turn up now because that's what her timetable said." She told him quietly, "You can't say that means anything..."

"And you can't tell me it means nothing." He replied, frustrated, he was determined to hate himself, to feel responsible so he could feel something.

"Whatever happened, you did what she would have wanted."

"You've known her for four days, what makes you think you know what she would have wanted." He said harshly.

"Tell me I'm wrong."

"If you're trying to make me feel better, it's not helping..." he said bluntly.

"So drink your tea and shut up." She told him with a small smile before she walked away, knowing that he needed something she could not give him.

Most of the others were gathered around Tariq, helping in the case of Sofia, hovering in the case of Harry. Ruth had taken to pacing the warehouse in wide circles, thinking,

"Ruth." Lucas said softly as she passed.

She had thawed towards him over the past few days but it was clear that he had damaged their relationship beyond repair. He was surprised therefore when she consented to stop and approach him to see what he wanted.

"What happened?" he asked in a strangled whisper.

"Lucas I-"she began; about to give him a line to avoid telling him, he interrupted.

"Please Ruth; I need someone to tell me, someone who can tell me the truth without editing the bits they think I don't want to know." He said, staring at her intently, his piercing blue eyes appearing to look straight through her, knowing her to the core while remaining blank and empty themselves.

She sat down quietly beside him, gathering her skirt beneath her to protect herself from the draining cold of the concrete beneath her. It was the first time she had allowed them to be alone together, always finding an excuse to leave or to have someone with her whenever they had spoken before now.

"Where do you want me to start?" She asked softly.

"The beginning, I have no idea what happened to her after my comms went down and we split up, I couldn't hear anything from her..."

She took a deep breath and said slowly, weighing every word, "Everything seemed to go as planned, despite the fact your wire cut out. She was supposed to go in alone anyway it would just have been nicer to have you closer but it was a detail not an essential part of the plan...Devil really is in them it seems..." she trailed off momentarily before catching herself and continuing, "MI-5's network went down at four as we had expected, all we needed then was for Amelin to kindly vacate the premises. Our gun man was a little over-enthusiastic, a bit too close for comfort but he cleared the room and everyone got out unscathed."

"Who was the gunman?" Lucas asked, wondering if his 'over-enthusiasm had been intentional.

"An old friend of Ros' from six, Matthew Collins, ex-military, she told him as little as she could get away with, he's retired he did it as a favour, that he was well paid for. You'll meet him; he's coming out here to get his reward." She said with disdain before continuing, "It was only after they were out and you got in to Amelin's office that the comms became a problem. As per the plan we had managed to get Amelin and Ros out of the office leaving it for you, but the two of you were supposed to have some sort of communication so she could warn you about Amelin. We could have worked around it, bridge the gap since we could speak to both of you but Amelin got jumpy. The slimy bastard figured out what was going on, Ros' wire stopped working, for us too...Amelin called her bluff, made her go back to the office, she managed to get information back to us on the pretext of calling to find out what was happening. It was crude but it seemed to work OK..." she trailed off, unwilling to continue.

"Ruth..."

"The last thing we heard was Amelin telling her to open the door to his office, the call disconnected before she did. We know that she was under duress, he was armed somehow, a gun or a knife, he was controlling her...If he found out she was feeding information back to us...We don't know, we haven't had any contact since."

There it was, the truth, not rose-tinted, dressed up or edited for his benefit. The truth, exactly what he had asked for. He almost wished that she had refused to tell him, left him guessing the truth of the situation...He wondered if her rejection would have been more or less painful than this.

"Thank you." He managed to croak, though he was not sure if he meant it. He held his head in his hands as he closed his eyes, wondering how this decision could have felt right, his only option at the time when he felt like this now...

"Lucas," Ruth began gently, if a little uncertainly.

"Don't." He choked whatever she had to say he did not want to hear it.

"It wasn't your fault." She persisted firmly.

"No? Will you still be telling me that at her funeral?" he demanded harshly, "It's alright Lucas, you buggered off and left her to the mercy of an ex-FSB prison officer with no qualms about killing people but it doesn't matter, really, it wasn't your fault...We all make choices Ruth, and we are responsible for those choices and their consequences. I made a choice, you can argue all you like that it was the right one, but the fact is that it was mine and it contributed to whatever happened to her so don't sit there and tell me that it's not my fault." He did not want her pity, he did not want her to lie to him and tell him that everything was alright when it was far from it.

"You're right...If she dies, I will blame you, at least in part, not completely, and unfairly but I will blame you...And I'll hate you for it, like I hated you for what you did to me...It's wrong, on both counts, for me to do that but it's human nature...When something bad happens to us, when we feel pain and suffering, we need someone to blame, someone to direct our anger against. We need something to strive for, something to hold onto that will allow us to move forward. When we feel that whatever's happened shouldn't have, that it was wrong, whether that be the death of a loved one, imprisonment in Russia or betrayal, we need a direction for the anger and bitterness that our pain turns to, something that we can transfer it to. We need there to be someone or something that we can justifiably force to endure some of our pain...When there is no-one to justifiably blame, we fall to the next best thing, either blaming ourselves or wrongly blaming someone else, someone who doesn't deserve it. The desire for revenge doesn't come with an off-switch, even if we know that it was no-one's fault we still need some way to get rid of it...I never really understood that old saying, 'hatred is a poison' seemed empty and clichéd until I realised that I was taking out my grief and anger on someone who didn't deserve it...It didn't make me feel any better, didn't help, in fact it just made things worse but I felt like there had to be _someone _ that I could hate, that I could take my feelings out on, I made up a case for it being that person's fault but it wasn't and I nearly missed out on everything that I have now...I swore I would never do that again but I was hurt and angry, there's only so much that logic and reason can overcome in situations like that...I forgot my promises to myself, and the reasons that I had made them, I lost myself recently Lucas, I lost perspective, and I nearly lost a lot more...I, I still can't trust you, some of our instincts run too deep to be changed, but I, I understand why, I..." she trailed off, unsure of how to continue without her words being empty and insincere.

"Ruth, I-"he began before stalling, in the car on the way to the warehouse the reality of Ros' probable fate had struck a chord with his situation with Ruth. Despite the fact that she mistrusted and despised him, he still cared about her. He had decided that whether or not she heard what he had to say, she would listen, he could not live with himself without knowing that he had at least tried, although a part of him agreed with Sofia that it was unjustified. The other part had won out and he had had a speech prepared, something that would help her to understand, he believed that understanding was the first step on the path to forgiveness. He had had detailed reasons as to _why _he had done things and that there would have been a point where he would have been unable to go on, that he would never have hurt her, or any other member of the team. He now found everything he had planned on telling her to be meaningless, she already understood his motives and reasons she just no longer understood him and he was not sure how he could convey that to her. It was not the physical betrayal that hurt her, it was the personal one and he had never been able to tell people of his feelings, his instincts went against revealing anything about himself, especially after Russia and he had never been able to part with personal information without sounding hollow and cold. Deciding that he had to say something he attempted to convey all of his feelings and his understanding to her as he breathed, "I'm sorry..."

She smiled quietly, understanding, "Apology accepted..." she did not forgive him, not entirely at least, and could not trust him, no amount of pretty speeches and understanding would change that, but she could accept him and that was a start.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes until Tariq called, "Guys."

Everyone gathered around him and Lucas asked.

"What's the damage?"

"I managed to get in without the software deleting everything" he began, "But there's a reason you're told to eject a device before removing it...You pissed it off, a lot of the data's been corrupted."

Lucas cursed softly as Harry asked, "Can you restore any of it?"

"I don't know, maybe, but we may end up relying on your brain Lucas."

"God help us all." A cool voice said from the doorway.

A/N: I know I sound like a broken record but thank you all for your reviews and support, I'm very glad that you're enjoying it. I never really intended this chapter to be what it ended up as, it's very much an instinct and an impulse chapter which seems strange what with all the character analysis that (hopefully) went on so that may explain if it doesn't work, it's quite challenging exploring the character's feelings towards each other while still advancing the plot but I do think it's a good idea to keep it balanced, hence the reason this chapter was quite character heavy. Anyway, let me know how you think it worked and whether or not I should stick to guns and wars as opposed to in depth character studies :)


	9. Power Plays

**Chapter 9**

Power Plays

"Ros!" Lucas pulled her into a rough embrace that neither of them were expecting in relief.

"Pull yourself together." She snapped, extracting herself with a small smile.

"What happened?" Harry asked at the same time she did.

Sensing the mixture of relief and tension in the room and the burning eyes of everyone she asked, "What do you know?"

"That several gunshots went off before your call disconnected." Ruth said in a tone that implied they all wanted to know _now._

"I was about to open the door when we heard a gunshot from inside the office. I take it that was you?" she enquired of Lucas.

"It had the desired effect." He said replied.

"Yes, I hesitated, Amelin forced the door open a few seconds later but you were already out. That caught him off guard, he was expecting to be rummaging through his drawers throwing his pornography all over the carpet...His surprise gave me an opportunity, we struggled over the gun, it accidentally went off and the phone slipped out of my hand, the battery dislodged and slid under one of the cabinets killing the call and any chance of contact with you."

"I hope you left us some functional bit of Amelin, he could still be useful to us." Sofia said, though she was smirking.

"He's in one piece; I gave him a friendly reminder not to fuck with us and left him to clean his office." She replied, "I was tempted to shoot him, slimy bastard..."

"He is isn't he...?" Sofia grinned, "He always had 'politician' written across his face, even in that prison..." she trailed off.

Her tone was neutral but it was clear that her history with Amelin was far more colourful then she was comfortable sharing with them. Lucas who knew all too well her past with Amelin lightly touched her shoulder and muttered, "Easy..."

Ros looked around the room before settling on Lucas and saying, "Well you're alive, what did you get?"

"Thank you for noticing. We're not sure, I didn't have enough time to complete the download, I took what I could but a lot of the files were corrupted, Tariq's working on them now."

"I did wonder why he wasn't hovering around me..." Ros muttered, "I guess there are only so many times you can return from the dead before work becomes more interesting..."

They quietly discussed the details of what had happened at the embassy, and Lucas gave her a full account of what had happened to him.

"Shit!" Tariq hissed, a notepad sailing towards them and skidding to a halt at Lucas' feet, narrowly missing Ros' head.

"Tariq?" she asked, all of them were surprised by the usually mild-mannered tech's frustration, "Why are you throwing notebooks?"

"Because everything else on the desk is too expensive." He sighed, irritably running a hand through his hair.

"What's wrong?" Ruth asked, cautiously approaching the desk now they had established that no more stationary was coming their way.

"There's no way I can restore the data on the on the key with what I've got here, I would struggle if were at The Grid..."

"Tariq it's OK." Harry said reassuringly, "We'll-"

They never heard what they were going to do as Tariq snapped, "No, no it's not 'OK', Ros and Lucas risked their lives to get this and I couldn't even-"

"Tariq, we did our jobs, the same thing we do every day in life, I don't expect you to patronize me over it. Sometimes things go wrong and you just have to deal with it. Apologise to the notebook and move on..." Ros told him firmly.

"Thanks Ros..." he mumbled. Not looking altogether reassured he pushed himself away from the desk and walked away from them, hands falling down limply at his sides in hopelessness.

"Here." She said, thrusting the notebook at Lucas, "Make him feel better."

"And if I don't?" he teased.

"I'll think of something to do to you before the world ends." She smirked, winking.

Lucas hunched over the desk that Tariq had vacated and closed his eyes, trying to focus on the details as he put himself back in Amelin's office. Ros watched him, reluctantly fascinated, as he began to rhyme off long strings of text, transferring them to the page, before quietly slipping away, leaving him in peace.

Lucas showed no sign of being inclined to share anything in a hurry and they had the good sense to leave him well enough alone. They split off into smaller groups, discussing their options now. Harry and Ruth headed out of the suffocating warehouse and out onto the rolling, wild hills that surrounded them. Tariq had taken a laptop and, despite the others' arguments against, was desperately trying to save something from the corrupted file to no avail. Sofia and Ros were sitting in a corner by the front door, enjoying the peace of each others' company.

A car door slammed quietly outside and both women jumped to their feet. Neither Tariq nor Lucas appeared to have heard, both too engrossed in what they were doing. Weapons half drawn Ros and Sofia made their way outside.

Ros surprised Sofia by approaching their visitor and pulling him into a quick, rough embrace. He was tall with greying black hair and intent green eyes. He had long, thin, nimble fingers that contrasted with the rest of him, being built like a wrestler.

"Matt, good to see you." She murmured.

"And you." He grunted in response

"Well I'm lucky you're seeing me at all. I know I hurt your feelings by refusing your dinner invitation but that was a little excessive wasn't it?" she said, playfully.

"You said make it look realistic." He shrugged, eyes twinkling.

"Not at the expense of my head." She retorted.

"Relax you've still got it right? No harm no foul."

She rolled her eyes and handed him a thick brown envelope, "Take it and go while you still have yours." He grinned and pocketed it," What? Not going to count it?"

"I trust you Rosie." He said, smirking wickedly as she blanched, "And you trust me to get the job done and not to ask questions, that's why this works."

"Fuck off before I change my mind." She told him, though the words were ruined by the smile tugging at her reluctant lips.

He obliged and bowed, ducking into the car and peeling off into the lonely hills. Sofia waited until the roar of the engine had faded before raising her eyebrows questioningly.

Ros shrugged, "We used to work together in six. Half of me was glad to see the back of him, half of me was sorry to be not to be working with him anymore. For all his flaws he was reliable. Although in saying that I didn't lose much sleep over the prospect of never seeing him again, but when we came up with this he was my first choice, I wouldn't have trusted anyone else..."

"I see...Rosie." Sofia grinned mercilessly as they made their way back inside.

"Don't make me shoot you now...I was just beginning to tolerate you."

...

A light mist had descended on the moorland, blanketing the hills Harry and Ruth were occupying without feeling oppressive.

"It's funny...We keep talking about this as though it's an apocalypse, there was a time when a third world war would have ended it...Not anymore, it would just make the world _different." _Ruth said quietly when they were a good distance from the warehouse.

"Frankly I'd rather an apocalypse as opposed to the world being controlled by Russia." Harry replied, not entirely sure where she was going with this.

"I kept wondering though, if the world was ending, how we would all spend our last days." She said absently, walking and talking without any apparent direction to either, "Ros would probably have a take-away and a glass of wine, nothing special, normal Saturday night...Tariq I've no doubt has some sort of underground bunker, with Wi-Fi of course, he'll be fine. Lucas, I can see sitting somewhere alone, and quiet, re-reading William Blake. You...I could see you doing something stupid, like telling me you wanted to get married..." she broke off, laughing lightly and turned away from him.

"I could see me doing that too..." he had no idea where she was going and was answering as impulsively as she was, "I can't see what your answer would be though..." Catching her eye and holding it.

"I can't either...But it just seems a little unoriginal for us doesn't it, getting married on the day the world ends, seems a little clichéd don't you think..." she murmured.

"I think it's very us...Everything realised too late."

"Everything was realised a long time ago...We just couldn't do anything about it, life got in the way of living...Timing is everything and you're right, the only time that could happen for us is at the end of the world..."

"Forever destined to be apart." He whispered.

"I would never consider us to be apart. You don't have to share a bed or a kiss to have a relationship, to be together..."

They were quiet for a long while. Despite the silence and the conversation that had just passed between them there was nothing uncomfortable about it. They understood themselves and they understood each other. They could know what the other was thinking when they themselves did not. It was the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of their relationship. They were so busy being concerned with where the other was that they never knew where they were...

"I think you would find everyone that you had ever fallen out with, anyone that you had ever hurt or upset, you would hunt them down and make your peace with them, then spend whatever time was left with the people you loved." He told her, after realising that they had never settled on what she _would _do if that time ever came.

"I think you would be at the top of both of those lists." She said, laughing softly.

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as she shivered slightly and said "We should head back."

"Yes." She agreed.

Reluctantly they turned away from the terrifyingly beautiful landscape and returned to the consuming darkness of the warehouse.

"What do you have Lucas?" Harry asked, sensing that if they left him agonizing over the Lighthouse file for much longer that he would have an aneurysm.

"I don't know, bits and pieces. They're more black and white than I expected, not the riddles we had but I don' know how much use it's going to be."

The others had joined them even Tariq who had finally admitted defeat and shut down the laptop after Ros had told him through gritted teeth that she would put a bullet through it.

"I think I can fully remember about fifteen attacks, but they're spread over different dates and different countries, stopping them won't even dent this operation. I've got fragments of others but without specifics, random countries and times aren't going to be of much use to us...If I had more time I may be able to remember more but..."

"No Lucas, you've done well." Harry told him pensively.

"The question is, what now?" Ruth said, "Lucas is right we can't stop this entire operation and its eventual outcome, even if we could stop these attacks all that would do would alert the Russians to what we were doing, they could change everything."

"That could be good for us; they might be forced to abandon the entire operation." Tariq said.

"No, they would continue, they would just change specifics, dates and times, it wouldn't prevent them from going ahead, it would just make whatever else Lucas remembered useless." Ros said, "The alternative to stopping these attacks would be to use them to expose Russia."

Lucas shook his head, "The world's teetering on the brink, Russia's exploiting that not creating it, Lighthouse is one of many triggers that will lead to war, exposing Lighthouse is another one. Either way, this is going to lead to war." He said grimly.

"Well if war is the only possible outcome then we go with the option that levels the playing field, we expose Russia, take away their advantage, let this tension resolve itself." Ros replied.

"It's not as simple as that Ros." Harry said, "If this comes to war thousands of people will die."

"We've run out of peaceful solutions. This is going to end in war whichever way you slice it, I'm choosing to take some action as opposed to none, fight fire with fire and try and limit the casualties. You wasting time over small talk isn't going to fix this Harry. If we catch Russia off guard, do the last thing she expects we might have half a chance." Ros countered angrily.

"What if we couldn't expose Russia...We know the source of this information but we have no way of proving it." Tariq pointed out.

"He's right; you can't entice the world to war on your word alone." Ruth said.

"What do you think Sofia?" Lucas asked, as the conversation lulled, everyone hitting the same brick wall. He had been watching her silently staring at the notes he had made throughout the discussion.

"Information is power. Secreting or hoarding it may be an act of tyranny camouflaged as war."

"Robin Morgan." Lucas said, recognising the words instantly, "How does that help us?"

"We have something to kill for. Something that is more powerful than any physical bomb, a weapon that is both devastating and versatile, it can destroy the weak and the strong, the important and the unimportant. Shatter hopes and tear countries apart. It is something that can begin and end wars, orphan children and widow wives...Something that everyone wants and few can have."

"That's all wonderful in theory, but information is only any use if you can do something with it." Ros pointed out.

"I take it you have something you want to do with it?" Lucas asked, knowing Sofia better than the others and knowing the dangerous set of her mind.

She nodded, "Everyone is saying that we need evidence to prove that we have truth, but the truth itself is evidence. The Russians won't need a memory stick or a source, all they will need to know we speak the truth is the information that we have."

"What's the point in telling Russia that we know a part of what they're planning?" Tariq asked.

"Because we can convince them that we know everything, which, in a sense, we do." Ros breathed, cottoning on to Sofia's idea.

"I think Amelin's one of the main players in this. It explains how jumpy he got at the embassy when he should have been more concerned about the sniper trying to put a bullet in his...Believe me, it would take something big for that selfish pig to think about anything other than himself...With that in mind I think I can convince him that we know everything about Lighthouse, not just where it's headed and a few specifics, everything. He already has cause to suspect that we know more than we should, he thinks, correctly, that someone was in his office...This is the last and only chance we have to end this peacefully."

"Don't you think it's a little dangerous for you to be play mind games with Ivan Amelin?" Lucas muttered softly.

"Don't preach to me Lucas! Not after everything that happened last year with Oleg." She snapped, "The alternative is far more dangerous..."

"It doesn't have to be you; the information doesn't change depending on who delivers it."

"It does, he won't trust anyone else...I'm already inside his head Lucas, I know who he thinks, that is an invaluable advantage to us...And besides I think Ros has officially ruined his relationship with MI-5, he won't see anyone else."

"That's-"

"Lucas, she's right." Harry said quietly, "I would prefer to have someone else do it; I was never keen for you to become involved in this Sofia don't take it to heart but you've been out of the game for a while." He said, she nodded, accepting his words as he continued, "Still she's right, we have an advantage in using her. It doesn't matter what kind of history she has with Amelin, the fact that she has one at all makes him more compelled to listen to her...I'm sorry Lucas but we don't have a choice in this."

"Congratulations." Ros said to Sofia, attempting to diffuse the atmosphere, "The world as we know it is in your hands."

"Cheers Ros..."

A/N: I hope this chapter managed to balance between characters and plot. I had to find a way to move the story forwards while still keeping the chemistry between the characters, something I found difficult, particularly with Harry and Ruth, romance is not my forte, as you can probably tell but I didn't feel that I could ignore the elephant the writer's have created between them despite my reluctance to attempt it. I'm beginning to attempt to tie up all of the loose ends and can only hope that this ends up OK and makes some sort of sense. Bearing all of that in mind I am, as always keen to hear your thoughts on this and hope you're enjoying it :)


	10. What's The Time Mr Wolf?

**Chapter 10**

What's The Time Mr. Wolf?

Sofia ascended the cold white steps into the Russian embassy, marvelling at the cleanup they had done in a relatively short time. The building was as pristine and perfect as it always was, the only thing that betrayed it was the paranoia now concealed behind the eyes of all those trapped within its walls.

"You know you're on your own in there Sofia, no heroics." Harry reminded her.

"We're really just listening in for fun, the closest officers are about five minutes from you, so if you do have to get shot make sure it misses all of the important things." Ros told her, earning her a wince from Harry. Sofia didn't mind, both women had found a mutual respect and even liking for each other, so much so that Lucas maintained he regretted ever introducing them.

"So in, convince him not to take over the world and back out in time for Coronation Street?" She smirked.

"If you would be so kind." Ros replied.

Sofia picked her way through the maze of windowless corridors, feeling as though she was trapped in underground tunnels before stepping into the relief of the lobby. They high ceilinged, open space would have felt warm and inviting in stark contrast to the grim, foreboding tunnels that led to it had she not known what their golden exterior concealed within its heart.

She confidently approached the reception desk, "Hello, is Mr. Amelin available?" she asked in a musical voice coated with a soft accent.

The secretary paused and stared at her, sizing her up with something close to disdain on her face before saying dismissively, "Mr. Amelin is away on business at the moment."

Sofia sighed and her features tightened in irritation as her long, thin fingers began to dance irritably on the top of the reception desk. "Can you get a message to him? Immediately?" she asked in evident exasperation.

The secretary raised her eyebrows but consented saying, clearly annoyed, "What would you like me to tell him?"

"Tell him," Sofia began in superior tones, "That his daughter is currently outside his office and needs to speak with him urgently." She finished smoothly.

""His daughter?" she squawked, as the colour drained from her cheeks at the thought.

"You're new aren't you?" Sofia said, patronizingly.

"I-I-"she spluttered, hands shaking.

"We'll forgive it this time. If you could tell him at once I would be grateful." She told her kindly.

"Of course." She gasped, upsetting several folders on the desk and leaving a cloud of paper settling to the floor in her wake as she hurried to the back of the offices.

"Does Amelin even have a daughter?" Ros asked, amused after her previous dealings with the insufferable receptionist.

"Yes, two. Lovely girls..." Sofia mumbled conversationally, carefully looking around the lobby, eyes flicking back to the doors at the end of the corridor into which the flustered receptionist had dashed.

"If this works..." Ros muttered, smirking.

"Hold that thought." Sofia whispered as Amelin burst from the door and hurried to the reception, closely followed by the petrified secretary.

"Helena? Nic-"he began, before swearing suddenly and violently in Russia, causing the young woman behind him to jump.

"Hello Dad." Sofia said sarcastically, grinning.

"How did _you _get in here?" he demanded ridiculously, furious as the receptionist scuttled back to her seat, attempting to make herself as small as possible while shooting daggers at Sofia who said, airily,

"There's a door over there." As she gestured in the general direction of the entrance.

"_Why _are you here?" Amelin snarled amidst a string of curses.

"That's a better question." She smirked before saying, "We need to talk." In a tone that implied that talking they would be.

He stalked back down the corridor; silently allowing she to follow as he marched into the room at the bottom of the corridor but opposite the one Ros and Lucas had entered.

"How much does Ros owe Lucas?" Sofia grinned in an undertone as she passed into the room and settled herself in front of the desk as he stumped towards her, thick crystal glass in one hand and a large bottle of whiskey in the other.

"I take it your _people_ are listening?" he spat in Russian filling and draining the glass in one fluid, well practiced motion.

"Does it matter?" she said silkily, watching as he poured another generous measure of the thick dark liquid she added, "Conversation generally tends to work best when both parties are conscious."

"Of course. You wanted to talk." He snarled deliberately draining the glass again, "And if you want something then the world must grind to a halt and hang on your every word."

"I think that's more your area of expertise than mine." She muttered darkly.

"You came here to talk, so talk." He told her.

Confused as to what they had been doing up to this point she said bluntly, "What do you know about Lighthouse?"

Amelin choked on his third glass of whiskey and Harry winced, "Easy Sofia..."

"Nothing." Amelin spluttered, eyes streaming.

Sofia forced him to meet her icy gaze before telling him in a deadly whisper, "I know when you're lying to me..."

He choked again and began to mumble incoherently to himself as she straightened up, considering him.

"Alright...alright." Sofia said pensively, leaning back in her chair and continuing to study the pitiful creature opposite her, she was sure he was playing her, his job may have changed since last they met but he had not, the games had begun. Still she continued, "I don't suppose it's fair of me to waltz into your office and demand answers without so much as a 'hello' so I'll start. I'll tell you what I know and you feel free to jump in wherever..."

They watched each other carefully, the silent exchange between them lasted only a few seconds before she began speaking but it was more than enough time for both of them. During her time in Russia, they had become intimately familiar with the way the other worked. Both of them had mastered psychological mind games and were deciding who was manipulating who here.

"I know that, despite the fact every man and his bulldog looked to China, that the Russian operation Lighthouse was behind the attack on MI-5's network, compromising it beyond a criminal extent..." She told him, watching with satisfaction as his eyes widened for a fraction of a second. It was a simple enough statement but his reaction would be the most telling thing.

He gazed wildly around the room before stammering, "I-I have no idea what you're talking about."

He clutched at the crystal glass in his hand as his knuckles turned white.

"Drop the bullshit." She told him abruptly, in mood for his attempts to undermine her intelligence in such a way.

"Alright." He said, sinisterly, the pathetic, helpless demeanour falling away alarmingly as he leaned back in his chair and hissed, "Prove it."

She watched him carefully, considering her options, she did not want to reveal everything immediately, she had to push him further first, still he had unsettled her by rapidly changing the playing field, despite the fact she had been expecting it, the instantaneous character change was making her inadvertently reconsider her options.

"Strike at the heart of all the gentlemen know. Man hangs on the eve my heart lies, four o'clock-"she began in a voice barely above a whisper.

This caught him off guard, "How did you?" he snapped, forgetting himself momentarily.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she smiled, watching as he leaned back in his chair again, attempting to regain control over himself, "Suffice it to say that everyone has their price if you can get to them. Revenge is also a good motivator."

Everything she had told him was true, but phrased in such a way that could make him second-guess things she had no influence or understanding of. She watched as he digested her words before he said, "Tell me, if MI-5 was aware of this, why do nothing to prevent it? It is catastrophic for them; they would have done well to avoid it."

"Why indeed?"

She watched him closely, while pretending to observe the bookshelf behind him. She knew that she was playing a dangerous game and that the ambiguity card would only work for so long, however she knew that equally, if she underplayed it he would sense that she was bluffing, both had disastrous outcomes if she read him wrongly.

"I expected better of you." He murmured finally, "You think that you can play me? Give me nothing in such a way that you believe you can convince me that you know more?"

"Shit." Ros muttered in Sofia's ear.

Sofia smiled quietly at the desk before saying, "And if you knew me well enough to expect better then you should have known that I would not have come here and bet with something I didn't have, that I wouldn't be at the table if I wasn't sure I had a winning hand." She laughed softly, waiting a beat and judging his reaction before continuing, "You are a fool Amelin, and it is disappointing. You're arrogance, and your faith in creating the perfect operation are making you ignore the thing that I so valued in you, you're ability to see everything at once. You're ignoring the human element. The perfect operation carried out by imperfect beings must have the potential to be flawed. You didn't really think that I would come here and lay all of my cards on the table in one, leaving myself exposed? You can't believe that I would come here with nothing more than a brief knowledge of something that has already happened? And if you believed that I would begin with information on one attack and claim to have knowledge of an entire network then this is barely worth my time...Frankly _I _expected better..."

She studied him, mask-like face impassive. Amelin could not know that at this moment, every muscle in her body had contracted making it impossible for her to breathe. If he did not accept what she had told him, if she had underestimated her ability to manipulate him then he would never believe what she had to make him. She had to make him believe _now _that she knew everything using only implied knowledge, she could not start throwing out random attacks to convince him. He would have to trust her on her word alone in order for things to proceed.

"This network is perfect...It has been built up over thirty years, it is impenetrable, you have no more 'cards' to play, you have _nothing." _He hissed, causing her heart to descend to the base of her spine.

She paused and tried a different tact, "I now have you on tape, confirming the existence of Lighthouse. What you believe is no longer important, who do you think I can now convince-"

He snarled and launched himself across the desk at her. She could feel the sharp touch of a knife pressed against her stomach. She refused to look at it, instead her dead, empty eyes stared straight into the fury filled sockets, inches from her before whispering,

"Much better..."

He struck her across the face with the handle of the knife, splitting open her lip and filling her mouth with the sickening, hot metallic liquid. He shrank back into his seat, his burning eyes leaving her in no doubt that had their circumstances been slightly altered he would not have shown as much restraint with the knife.

"You know nothing." He spat, eyes reduced to slits. But despite the surety of his claims, she sensed that he was trying to convince himself as much as her. She knew this was it, now or never. She was fairly certain that if she didn't play this right she would not live long enough to discover the global consequences.

"I know more than you will ever understand...You never could master the way to get me to talk, turns out it's easier than you expected, I won't just talk, I'll sing. Like a canary..." she paused a moment to watch the expression on his face change as she began in a measured voice, "Lighthouse is a trigger network formed behind closed doors during the Cold War. Within this operation you have individual, isolated cells based all over the world, each member of which is given a single piece of information concerning a specific attack. When the time is right one member of the group, the trigger, is given a means of contacting the others and pooling the data. When the fragments are then put together by the trigger they then have all the information they need. As do I."

She paused to savour his expression, she took great pleasure in knowing things that she shouldn't and this was a particularly enjoyable experience for her as she watched Amelin trying to understand how she knew details of something that only the most senior members of his security services had access to. She did not give him the chance to think about it long before continuing,

"Lighthouse exists to burn bridges, form alliances and put pressure on cracks that have been developing in nations' trusts for years. It's genius, Lighthouse initiates a string of attacks, all carried out by Russia but with another countries fingerprints that will cause a chain reaction culminating in war on a global scale, from which you remove yourselves and watch as the rest of the world destroys itself while you pull the strings."

He stared at her intently again before smiling nastily and hissing once again, "Prove it." He leant forwards with a smug smile and told her, "No-one will believe your claims, accurate or not, because that is all they are. If you had any hard evidence it would be being paraded around in front of me and on national television, not behind the closed doors of my office. It doesn't matter what you know, the only thing that matters is what you can prove. Information only has power if people accept it as truth."

"Devil's in the details isn't it Amelin..." she breathed, "The only thing you need is the one thing you are missing. Perspective. I know everything about this network, and I don't need a piece of paper to wave in front of you to prove it. I just need you to think about it to realise, I know this network just as well as you."

"Lies." He spat.

"Truth. Logic dictates that I know what I'm talking about. I have knowledge of Lighthouse Amelin, by its very definition that means I have proof of it. Just like I have proof of the fact that, while MI-5 are left helpless in the wake of the attack on their servers, several bombs will be detonated on the London underground today at six o'clock. It will appear on the surface to be a terrorist attack but Chinese involvement will soon be implied courtesy of the large 'Made in China' labels on the bomb components, hinting that China and the Middle-East are on _very _good terms. I also know that you intend to compromise several British banks causing the collapse, resulting in the loss of millions . It will become apparent that their collapse was caused by the sudden, deliberate demand for instantaneous repayment of several shady loans, also from the Middle-East. And that's only in Britain... We know that an attempt will be made on the American president's life when he visits Pakistan in three days time. I know that internet trading between the US and China will dry up at the same time classified British documents reveal our intention to pull out of Afghanistan, strongly implying an alliance between Britain and America. Then there's the plan for Germany to disgrace the French chancellor by showing his connections to several lucrative deals illegally smuggling drugs into the country. The French will then retaliate by seemingly providing proof that Germany's economic strength relies on big businesses' tax evasion and the government turning a blind eye to their use of cheap, overseas labour. It's all lies of course but mud sticks...And of course in a week's time you plan to-"

"Stop." He cut in, in a strangled whisper.

"Come now Ivan, I told you I know everything and you were sure that was impossible so surely you need more. You need me to tell you that America is currently planning to-"

"I said stop!" he snarled, flicking the knife up to her throat and breathing hard. His eyes were popping madly as he stared at her, the tip of the knife drawing ruby tears of protest from her skin.

Feeling that he was currently weighing up the pros and cons of slitting her throat, she said, "But I will prove it, further...You were right to suspect Jess Healy, while she pulled you to safety in the lobby, out of the way of the warzone that some maniac had created in your office one of her colleagues gained access to your computer and hacked into the Lighthouse file using your cleverly concealed code...It's over Amelin..."

"No..."

She got to her feet, as his hand going slack on the knife, shock taking control of his extremities as they began to shake violently, she leant down and whispered sweetly, "Call off your dogs...Or we'll slaughter them."

A/N: I realised that as I began to attempt a resolve for this that I didn't want it to be very dramatic and over the top, I wanted it to be realistic and believable and I didn't think the threat of a zombie apocalypse would qualify. As it turned out, it ended up being something as simple as having two people in a room together talking but because of that everything between them needs to be perfect. My biggest fear was that this would end up being a huge anti-climax and a disappointment, and I'm not sure about this chapter and not sure if it is, so please let me know your thoughts on this and how you feel about the way this is trying up.

I hope this worked, at least to an extent, and I hope you've enjoyed it so far, thank you all for your support!


	11. Dusty Beer and Paranoia

**Chapter 11**

Dusty Beer and Paranoia

It was ten to six and the team were gathered around a small, crackling television that faded from colour to black and white before catching and reminding itself that it was in the 21st century and returning to colour. After Sofia had calmly walked from Amelin's office, leaving the man with a look on his face that would have hinted to an outsider that he was in the midst of having a stroke, they had returned to the warehouse before deciding to go somewhere and find a television or a radio and not to go back to London until they knew what was happening.

Ros had stated that the best cure for tension and exhaustion, from which they were all suffering was beer, and so that had ended up in a small country pub that, due to the lack of civilisation around it, could only be described as being situated in a field.

They were clustered around the small television and were waiting, impatiently, for the six o'clock news or, more precisely, for the six o'clock news to finish. If they got through the half an hour without reports of a potential terror attack on the London Underground then Amelin had taken the bait and had pulled the plug on Lighthouse. If not...Then it was as well they were in a bar.

The intensity that they were directing at an advert concerning dishwashing soap that preceded the news was causing the aged bar tender to stare in open astonishment at them as though they had arrived outside in a spaceship.

As it was, when the six of them had ambled into his pub at the same time, each of them requesting a drink and the television remote, his eyes had almost fallen into the glass he had, and still was, cleaning with a limp cloth. It was clear that the run-down little country pub was not accustomed to having so many visitors at once, a week's worth of takings had been deposited into the conspicuously empty till drawer when they had bought drinks.

The six o'clock news came, and went, without mention of any disruption to the underground. The entire show was rather uneventful as of course, the news that MI-5 was currently 'under repairs' had been omitted entirely. They stared blankly at the screen as the credits rolled, none of them feeling any more relaxed despite the beer and lack of bombs.

The adrenaline that had fuelled them in the past few days had now been replaced with acute sleep deprivation. They were all irritable and tense and none of them had been optimistic enough to presume that a two hour conversation would have been enough to stop the threat of Lighthouse that had so consumed them. It was almost as though they had _wanted _Lighthouse to stubbornly remain in place. It had consumed their lives and changed so much about them recently that this almost seemed too easy.

Harry grabbed the remote and began channel flicking, finding different news channels and watching for different information. No breaking news. No flashing lights or live camera feeds. Nothing.

"It's over..." Tariq muttered, hollowly.

Ruth quietly got up and headed for the bathroom, slipping away before Harry did what she knew he would do,

"Not necessarily." Harry replied, grimly, continuing to change channels.

"What? You want to visit the London Underground and check for yourself?" Ros demanded, relief and exhaustion making her irritable, "He's right, it's finished. We didn't give them any choice Harry. They accepted what Sofia put before them, they believed that we knew everything that we had the power to compromise the entire investigation...Besides, if anything had happened it would have been reported in the first ten minutes...It's been over forty."

Ruth returned, phone in hand, "MI-5's back in business, they've restored our servers, files untouched."

"How kind of them." Ros murmured.

"There is another possibility..." Sofia muttered, staring into the dregs of her drink as though expecting to find confirmation in them, "This could just be a distraction, a bluff, catch us off guard and make us think that we're out of danger...Lighthouse continues as though nothing had happened, the attack simply takes place at a different time..."

"God get a room..." Ros muttered, glancing from Harry to Sofia, "I expect this from him..."

"You'll learn." Sofia smirked.

"Do you think Amelin could do something like this?" Harry interrupted.

"Wouldn't put it past him..." Sofia replied darkly.

"I don't know, I thought she was pretty convincing, _I _believed she knew everything." Tariq muttered, draining his glass.

"He can be convincing too...He's played people like this before, and I've paid the price for letting my guard down around him."

"So, what do you suggest?"" Ruth asked, "We have The Grid again, we can keep an eye on him, see what his saying, try and find evidence that he's called off Lighthouse."

"Or our favourite new psychologist negotiator could just give him a call." Ros winked.

Sofia smiled but Ruth said, "That's not a bad idea...Do you think you could get him to talk?"

"Perhaps, he can push my buttons, but I can push his..." She replied, with a wolfish grin, if it had the potential to cause Amelin discomfort then she was all for it.

"Push these buttons." Ruth said, tossing her a phone.

"Alright..." She carefully dialled the number and waited. After several moments of silence she carefully replaced the phone on the bar, shrugging and finishing the last drops from her drink.

"Cold feet?" Ros enquired tactfully.

"Voicemail." She replied.

"That's strange..." Ruth muttered,

"Not really, I didn't want to listen to me gloat, I can't imagine he did."

"Probably not, but as far as he was concerned the call didn't come from you. We set it to flag up the caller ID as one of his daughters." Ruth said, looking puzzled.

"Maybe he's in the shower." Sofia said, irritably, it had been rash to agree to call him, it wouldn't have achieved anything and frankly she was sick of discussing Amelin, he could blow up the world tonight for all she cared, she was done with him.

"What now?" Tariq asked as someone unwisely ordered another round of drinks.

"Poker?" Sofia smirked.

"Now we wait." Harry said, he had been mulling it over since Ruth had gently, but firmly, pulled the remote from his hands. "We'll have a tense few weeks, if they make a move then we'll respond to it, but for the moment it appears that the Lighthouse operation has crumbled, so for now, well done."

They all agreed, although it was still with the strange reluctance that none of them wanted to feel. After days filled with codes, manipulation and adrenaline, sitting calmly in a bar drinking cheap beer that seemed like a very underwhelming end.

None of them had expected a red carpet awards ceremony and champagne, they had one of the most thanklessly rewarding jobs on the face of the Earth and none of them needed or wanted empty gratitude from people who could not even begin to comprehend what they were thanking them for, but they had been anticipating, not a more dramatic end, if this really was it, but just _more. _More than sitting around a schizophrenic TV in a bar that hadn't been used properly since the beginning of the Cold War judging by the dust floating in their drinks as they prayed for _nothing _to happen...

"We'll finish up here then go home and sleep." He concluded eloquently, raising his glass to them.

They sat quietly around the table, sipping their dusty beers and, for some reason, continuing to order more. Sofia looked to Lucas, intending to strike up a conversation about _something, _but stopped as she noticed his eyes flicking to Harry. The motion took up on a fraction of a second but that, coupled with the tension in his body made her turn to Tariq instead saying,

"I hear you're alright at snooker."

"Alright? I am _legendary_!" he told her, grinning and flexing his fingers.

She smirked and said, "Prove it."

"You're on." He grinned, beer left, abandoned on the bar as he followed her gaze and spotted the table in the corner before making a beeline for it.

"Ruth? Ros?" Sofia said, airily, with a half-glance between Harry and Lucas.

Both women got up and followed Sofia and Tariq to the table, leaving Harry and Lucas alone at the bar.

Harry purposefully avoided Lucas' piercing stare until the younger man finally broke the silence between them,

"So, what now?"

"We wait." Harry replied, pensively, without looking at him.

"That's not what I-"Lucas began, looking down at the knotted bar tentatively supporting their drinks.

"I know what you meant, but honestly, I don't know Lucas...Things can't just go back to the way they were."

"I never expected them to...I know what sacrifice means Harry."

"Yes..." Harry quietly told his beer.

"I never thought that things would change overnight, in fact I'm impressed I made it overnight to be perfectly honest with you. I didn't expect them to forget everything because everything turned out OK and there was a good reason for all the lies I sold them. Trust isn't built on logic and reason, it's built on time. Spend a lifetime building a reputation for it to crumble away in an instant...I know what I gave up Harry, because I chose to give it up. I hated myself for it Harry, the lies, the manipulation, but it was necessary..." He trailed off, looking disgusted with himself.

"It's such a cold word 'necessary'...No emotion, no attachment...I did it because it was 'necessary' every time I say those words, I hate myself too...I understand Lucas. I understand that, especially after Russia, the trust and respect of this team, what it meant to you...Honestly it's the only reason we're sitting here now...That and the fact I'm convinced Sofia can sell ice to Eskimos..."

Lucas smiled before saying quietly, "You still haven't answered my question."

"That's because _I _can only answer it. In this case, I cannot speak on behalf of everyone else. I trust you Lucas. For whatever reason you want to put it down to, empathy, understanding, history, I can honestly say that I would have done the same thing in your position, I've known you for longer than anyone else on this team, and I like to think that I know you...As much as anyone can." He paused, as Lucas smiled slightly at this last comment,

"You're right though; trust isn't built on reason and logic, or even truth. I don't even believe that it's built solely on time, its' roots run deeper, into that part of human beings that science can never penetrate and that we can never fully understand, that piece of ourselves that will always remain alien, even to us..." he paused, looking into his drink before continuing quietly, "I trust you Lucas. I would comfortably place the lives of everyone in this country, including my own, in your hands once more. You are a fine officer, and one of the best people I've had on my team, I wouldn't lose sleep over putting you back in the field tomorrow morning...But what I would lose sleep over is the thought that I had jeopardised the inner mechanics of this team by doing something that they didn't agree with...If they can't work with you then it makes no difference what I believe, a King is only as strong as his Kingdom and without them I don't have one..."

"So what are we going to do? Secret ballot? Or late night team bonding sessions round a campfire?" he asked, his voice seemed relaxed and composed; the only thing that betrayed him was the intensity in his eyes.

Harry sighed and said, "Come in on Monday after we've all had a chance to sleep and to think. We'll aim for business as usual and we'll see what happens."

"You think you'll get a straight answer out of them?" he asked, sceptically,

"That's Plan A."

"What's Plan B?" Lucas asked, almost smiling.

"...I shoot you and we'll see who protests."

A/N: On the face of it this chapter should have been easy to write since I feel very similarly as the characters do. As I had pointed out one of my biggest fears was this being an anti-climax and then I realized that by its very nature, it had to be...Writer's block springs to mind with this chapter, I've agonized over it for a while but I'm still not sure if I'm a hundred percent happy with it, still, I hope that you're still enjoying it, I'm only planning for one more chapter in this to tie up a few loose ends so if you notice anything that you want resolved that I may have missed let me know.

As always thank you all for your support and your reviews and as ever I would love to hear your feelings on this.


	12. Crystal Balls and Conspiracy Theories

**Chapter 12**

Crystal Balls and Conspiracy Theories

Lucas was sitting alone around the large rectangular table used to team briefs, feeling slightly claustrophobic despite the large, open room. The door slid open with a soft hiss and Harry entered taking his usual seat at the head of the table.

"Do they know I'm here?" Lucas asked who, thanks to adrenaline and vivid flashbacks had ended up with insomnia and as a result had arrived on The Grid almost five hours before anyone else.

"They will in a minute." Harry replied.

Choosing to ignore that comment Lucas asked, "Sofia?"

"To be honest I don't know...She's a law unto herself that one..." Harry muttered, looking as though he was regretting his, admittedly alcohol fuelled job offer in the bar.

Lucas smiled slightly and said, "She should come back...Good for her good for us." Harry did not look convinced. Lucas paused a moment before saying, "Is it an 'us' or a 'you'?"

"My position hasn't changed Lucas. I want you back on this team; I need all the officers I can get what with the recent drama of the Lighthouse investigation."

"What about the others? Have you spoken to them?"

"No, that's why we're here." Harry said, "To be honest I don't think they'll protest."

"Is that because they're willing to work with me or because they trust you?" Lucas asked softly,

"Does it matter?" Harry asked.

"It matters..." Lucas waited before making the decision to change the subject "How did it go with the Home Secretary?"

"How-"

"We can always tell..." Lucas grinned,

Harry smirked before saying, "He was a little upset at his entire Section D disappearing to the middle of nowhere and threw a bit of a tantrum over being kept out of the loop."

"The usual then?"

"Just about..."

Lucas smiled as the door opened again and Ros entered, closely followed by Ruth and Tariq. Their eyes lingered on Lucas a little too long but they all took their seats around him without a word.

"What's happened?" Ros asked plainly, eyes flicking from Harry to Lucas and back again coming to rest on Harry.

"Nothing." Harry began, "Nothing like that, "He clarified, and "Everything from the Lighthouse operation seems to have died down, at least for the minute."

"So we've just got ordinary terrorists and psychopaths to deal with?"

"Quite, business as usual, but there's something we have to deal with first..."

"What?" Ruth asked, all of them wishing that Harry would stop skirting around what they all knew they were there for.

Lucas took pity on him and jumped in, "We're here to decide whether to keep me or shoot me." He said, with a small smirk in Harry's direction.

"Thank you Lucas, delicately put as ever..." Harry grimaced, "I'm more than happy to reinstate Lucas and have him return to The Grid, effective immediately, but I want to know how you all feel about it first."

"That's not like you Harry." Ros said teasingly.

"In this situation I didn't feel that I could make an executive decision on behalf of you all." Harry said, with a glance at Ruth.

"In that case shoot him, never liked the bastard anyway." Ros grinned,

"Thanks Ros." Lucas muttered, grinning in her direction.

"Pleasure."

Harry continued as though there had been no interruption, "I wanted him to be here initially to give his version of events, what actually happened, then-"

"No Harry, I'll go now." Lucas broke in softly,

"Are you sure Lucas I-"

"No, I'm not going to stand here and make a sales pitch of myself...I respect them more than that." He told them with a slight edge to his voice before walking to the door and carefully shutting it behind him.

"Well now that the elephant's out of the room, what does everyone want to do about it?" Ros asked diplomatically, spreading her hands on the table.

"Well why don't you start us off Ros, what do you think?" Harry asked, patiently,

"A great many things...On this particular subject...I don't really know why we're here Harry, frankly I think I could tell you I wanted to ship him back to Russia and have him suffer another eight years for what he did and I don't think it would make any difference."

"Do you want to do that to him?"

"That's not the point; you've already made up your mind."

"Yes I have, but if none of you are comfortable with working with him again then I'll get him a passport to Barbados..."

"It always comes back to politics with you doesn't it..." Ros sighed, shaking her head.

"This isn't politics its-"

"Of course it is...All of us will work with him again, you know that." Ruth told him quietly. "What you should have asked us was whether or not we trusted him."

"You can't have one without the other Ruth." Harry pointed out gently.

"I can...I trust him to do his job, I trust him to keep us safe and do what needs to be done, to make decisions that will affect the lives of everyone on this team and potentially the lives of everyone in this country but that doesn't mean that I trust _him..._"

Harry opened his mouth to argue but it was Tariq who spoke this time, "That doesn't mean we can't and won't, it just means that we need time...And in that time, we'll work with him."

"Besides, if it doesn't turn out alright I'm sure we can kill him and make it look like an accident..." Ros said smoothly,

"Tactful as ever...So we're all in agreement?" He asked,

"We are." Ruth said quietly.

Tariq and Ros got up, Ros, sensing that Harry and Ruth wanted to talk, offered to tell Lucas the good news and allowed them to remain alone together, closing the door with a soft hiss behind her.

"Is that how you really feel?"

"Yes...He didn't...Well I can't say he didn't do anything wrong, but everything he did was done for a reason, this job, he was willing to give up everything for it Harry...It seems cruel to take it away from him..."

"What about him?"

"He lied to us Harry, manipulated us...Regardless of his reasoning that's not something we can all just ignore and move on from. "

"Nor should we." Harry said,

"But we will...In time...I'm OK with this Harry...Really."

She turned and left as Harry quietly told the empty room, "Good..."

...

Sofia walked calmly down the corridor towards Harry's office. She glanced into the room occupied by Section D, Ruth and Lucas were sitting at two individual desks, both of them staring intently at their screen. She thought this looked positive; neither of them appeared to have put arsenic in the others tea so there was hope yet...

"Sofia...I was beginning to think you weren't coming." He said, offering her the same seat she had occupied less than a week ago...It felt like a lifetime.

"My apologies." She said simply, settling herself in the chair.

Harry waited for an explanation and, when none seemed forthcoming, said, "Why are you here?"

"Why did you ask me to be here?" she countered,

He sighed, "I offered you a job, I take it you're here making your response."

"Indeed...See, we could have saved two minutes of pointless conversation..."

"Yes, so let's. Have you come to a decision?" he asked, getting to the point.

She smiled, "I thought I had...I thought that I was fully prepared for whatever this job had to throw at me, that I would do it happily to get out of the monotony of the nine to five. I came in here fully intending to take you up on your offer. These last few days are the first times I've felt alive, properly alive in a decade."

"What's the problem?" Harry asked, not unkindly.

"I don't know if this is the way I want to live...So much has changed, the people I remember, most o f them are gone, and I have to ask myself why that is. I was happy, happy in my bookshop, with nothing more interesting than the occasional big-spender walking in through the door after something rare...I've missed this, God have I missed this...But I'm not sure if that's a good thing..."

"Good or not, is it what you want?" he asked,

She glanced out at the room beyond, watching as Tariq came in and handed Ruth and Lucas coffee as Ros followed him in, demanding where hers was. "Yes." She said, quietly, almost without thought.

"I need you to be sure about this Sofia." Harry cautioned, though he privately wanted her to stay.

"I know...I want to belong somewhere again, I want to have something to do something...I've spent the last ten years without belonging, avoiding human contact, avoiding commitments, never tying myself down, leaving myself to option to flee the minute things got too much for me. The irony is that I've spent all this time running from my past without realising that's what I should be running to."

"How do you know you've stopped running?" he asked softly.

"This job was the only thing that I ever did that made me feel real, that made me feel alive, I had forgotten what that felt like...When I came back from Russia, I wanted nothing to do with MI-5, I wanted to be an ordinary person and then I realised how dull that was." Harry smiled in spite of himself..."I regretted the decision but I was stubborn, I stuck to my decision, convinced myself that I would find something I wanted as much as this if I looked hard enough...I never did...Lucas' suicide note on my doorstep, reminded me that I had mentally stopped living a long time ago."

"You know the commitment of this job; I don't have to tell you what it will demand from you."

"No, so please don't."

"Well then I suppose all that remains is to say welcome aboard Miss Fletcher." Harry said with a smile.

"You don't have to clear this with anyone else?" she asked, surprised.

"You've got the desk between Ruth and Ros."

She smiled and was about to stand up when the door was opened,

"Sorry to interrupt, "Ruth said hurriedly, "You should see this Harry..." With a brief hesitation she added, "You too."

Both of them got up and followed her through to the open desk space, the others were gathered around a small television set, Harry, Ruth and Sofia joined them in time to hear the presenter say,

"Mr. Amelin was found dead in his home a few hours ago; police are currently attributing his death to a suicide."

Harry turned to the room at large and watched them for a reaction; Sofia was the first to break the silence, "How sad..."

"Strange, he didn't strike me as the type." Harry muttered,

"No, but then how can you really know what anyone is capable of." Ruth muttered, darkly.

"Did they give a reason for the suicide?" Lucas asked,

"No, not yet at least, they'll think of something...They always do."

The others agreed that this was to be expected and was not really anything to make a big deal of it and they slowly dispersed, Sofia made to leave as well but Lucas caught her arm and steered her into the deserted corridor beyond.

"What?" she snapped roughly, pulling her arm from his grip.

"Amelin _wasn't _the type." He growled, his piercing eyes seemingly to physically look through her.

"I wouldn't have said that about you either but the world accepted that and moved on." She hissed.

"Are you telling me that you had nothing to do with this?"

"Of course not." She said simply.

"Sofia-" he began,

"I did inform the man that he had allowed MI-5 to destroy the last thirty years of his life...I can't honestly say that I left him in the highest of spirits..."

"You know what I meant."

"Yes, I did...What do you think?"

"I think, as was pointed out, you can never be sure of what someone's capable of."

"I never said I wasn't capable."

"Neither did I."

"Be careful Sofia."

He left her standing in the middle of the corridor, quietly watching as he walked away from her.

A/N: Well I think I want to leave it there. I hope you've all enjoyed this and would like to hear your thoughts, not only on this chapter, but on how everything worked as a whole. I wanted this to be something that could have been an episode from the show, (one of the plausible, high octane, intense good ones before the writer's committed Lucas' season 9 character assassination) and hopefully I've managed to pull that off even a little bit. I was a little unsure about bringing in a new character, Sofia, who hadn't appeared on the show but I didn't think her parts would have worked with any of the other characters, truth be told I ended up falling in love with her and hope that no-one objects to me carrying her forwards and fleshing out her character a little more :)

As ever, a final thank you to all of my readers and reviewers and I will always be keen to hear your thoughts about this final chapter and about the story as a whole.

I intend on making this the first in a 'season' if you like, so please keep an eye out for the next instalment :)


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